


Asterix, Obelix & Stephanie: Revenge of the Romans

by novarose122001



Category: Astérix et Obélix | Asterix & Obelix (Animated Movies), Astérix et Obélix | Asterix & Obelix (Live Action Movies), Astérix le Gaulois | Asterix the Gaul & Related Fandoms
Genre: Action, Action/Adventure, Acts of Kindness, Adventure, Blood and Violence, Canon-Typical Violence, Changing History, Cooking, Fighting, Gauls, Gods, History, Kindness, Magic, Mild Blood, Mystery, Original Character(s), Potions, Rage, Restore, Spells & Enchantments, The Romans, Thief, Time Travel, Vikings, Violence, Weapons, powers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-17
Updated: 2020-03-08
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:29:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 25,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22766284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/novarose122001/pseuds/novarose122001
Summary: Strange things had happened in the past, but now it had dramatically changed the future too! It's up to Stephanie, who was tossed into the past to rewrite history from the clutches of Julius Ceaser. She is not alone either. Can Stephanie, Asterix, Obelix, and a few familiar and unfamiliar friends rescue the world from the abused power that was stolen from the gods?
Relationships: Astérix | Asterix & Obélix | Obelix, Cubitus/Infirmofpurpus, Stephanie & Asterix, Stephanie & Obelix
Kudos: 9





	1. The Cold Viking Villager

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stephanie was just adventuring around until her adventure soon turn an unexpected turn...

Stephanie was shivering cold as she was in Denmark, looking for a museum to get herself out of boredom.

She is wearing a cameo heavy jacket that oddly looked like her sweater, except has a fluffy hood and covering Stephanie’s face.

Stephanie’s hands were shoved in her jacket’s pockets, but you could see she was wearing a pair of black gloves.

She still is wearing her blue jeans and sneakers, except around her neck is a knitted gray and red scarf.

Stephanie continued looking around through Demark, shivering as she rushed to find something to warm her up.

Despite her long hair turned red to keep her body warm, Stephanie was still cold.

Soon, Stephanie gave up looking for the museum that caught her attention and entered a random store.

“Undskyld mig for at komme uventet ind i din butik,” Stephanie pardoned herself in Danish. “Jeg-”

“Ja, ja, det ved jeg!” a male’s voice sighed from the back of the store. “Du kom ind her for at varme op, ikke?”

Stephanie stopped talking and huffed, taking her scarf off from around her neck.

“Undskyld mig for at fortælle dig,” Stephanie huffed as she pushed her hood over her head.

“Tilgiv mig,” the male’s voice spoke softly, coming out from the back of the store. “Folk i disse dage er kun her for at blive varmet op og ikke købe noget.”

Stephanie nodded her head in agreement and said, “Jeg forstår, hvordan det føles at være butiksejer.”

The shop owner looked slightly surprised after Stephanie assured him that she understood how that felt, rubbing the back of his head.

“Er du sikker?” he asked. “Du ligner ikke en anstændig butikkejer.”

Stephanie chuckled gently and said, “Ja, jeg ser måske ikke ud som en anstændig butikkejer, men jeg var litteraturforfatter da jeg var meget yngre.”

The shop owner paused for a moment after Stephanie explained to him, before smiling softly and asked, “Så skal du købe noget? Vi har noget, der er specielt, der er på lager!”

Stephanie perked from what he had said to her, asking, “Hvad er dette ‘specielle,’ du har på lager?”

The shop owner grinned and walked around the back of the counter, before kneeling down to get something, as Stephanie watched with curiosity.

After a few minutes, the shop owner stood back up from the ground and placed a Viking’s helmet on the counter.

It looked worn out and had wings on the sides, but it was fading from age slowly.

On one of the wings, it has a tag that reads ‘100,000 kr.’

“Whoa!” Stephanie remarked, pointing to the helmet with a finger. “Det er dyrt!”

The shop owner nodded his head and said, “Det er en traditionel familiehjelm! Mine forfædre var romere, da deres venner, der har denne type hjelm, er Gallien!”

“Ho lee chit!” Stephanie remarked. “Det er fantastisk!”

He blushed from Stephanie’s remark, and Stephanie thought to herself for a moment and asked, “Må jeg holde det?”

The shop owner paused for a moment after Stephanie asked, before answering, “Ja, men vær forsigtig, den er virkelig gammel og kan let blive beskadiget, hvis du taber den.”

Stephanie nodded her head, and the shop owner handed the helmet over to Stephanie.

As soon as the shop owner released his grip on the helmet, Stephanie suddenly blacked out.

* * *

Stephanie blinked her eyes after she had blacked out after touching the helmet.

She noticed that she was back outside, in the middle of the forest, and not holding the helmet in her hands.

It was semi-dark outside, but the creepiest thing of all was that the scenery looked like it had come out of the history book after World War Ⅱ.

“What the-?” Stephanie spoke in English before a cold wind blew past her, causing her to shudder and wrap her arms around her skinny body.

She glanced around at the area Stephanie is at, looking confused and wondering where the shop owner is.

‘Di-Did that guy tricked me into touching that helmet?’ Stephanie thought to herself as she snarled slightly, revealing her sharp canines, before stopping when she realized something. ‘Or… wait a minute.’

Then, she smacked her forehead with her hand, groaning to herself.

‘It’s the same thing again!’ Stephanie groaned. ‘Maybe I have been tossed past before the cowboy age…’

Then, Stephanie heard something shuffled through the semi-snowcovered greenery from the corner of her eye, causing her to flinch, before being out her claws.

Whatever could be in this forest, could hurt her at any chance.

She wrapped her scarf tightly around her neck and buttoned up her jacket, tucking her hair in her hood, and rearranged everyone that she loosened on her.

Once everything was back in place, Stephanie slowly walked towards what could have made that noise, still having her guard up.

She did not want her identity to be revealed by someone who is not from her time, and everything in the history would be rewritten differently!

Stephanie continued going through the forest, as her feet gently crunched on the snow on the ground, as the trees were almost bare.

Then, she noticed something strange.

Using her left hand that does not have any claws, she felt the bare tree, noticing that it was not even ready for winter.

It was still springtime!

Stephanie felt more and more confused as she glanced around, noticing that there were not even any hints that the animals are hibernating, but more like all disappeared.

As she pushed back a semi-bare bush, Stephanie glanced down at the ground and noticed a footprint was on the ground.

It does not look like Stephanie’s shoe print but looked almost like someone else’s.

The footprint was smaller than her own, and by how the footsteps lead, it looked like the person or child was stumbling a little, heading deeper into the semi-dark and snow-covered forest.

A gut-wrenching feeling was in Stephanie’s stomach when she slowly pieced the pieces together.

Someone or something must have been injured in the forest by something, or could be frozen stiff without any winter gear on!

Sheathing her claws, Stephanie ran as fast as she could, searching for the man, woman, or being that was left outside to freeze.

Stephanie ran past frozen bushes, crunched through the snow, and ducked underneath low hanging branches.

After a few minutes of running, Stephanie finally reached the area where the semi-covered shoeprints led, seeing a bush.

Confused, Stephanie brought her claws out again and inched towards the bush, preparing herself for the surprise attack.

Once she was close to the bush, Stephanie reached over for it with her left gloved hand, as the other had her claws out for attack.

Grabbing a bush, Stephanie slowly pulled it back to see what could be inside it but stopped when she was astonished at who was inside.

It was a small, young man.

He wears a no sleeved black shirt, with a green belt around his waist with three small gold plates, red pants, and brown shoes.

On top of his head is a very identical winged helmet that Stephanie had seen before.

Attached to his belt is a small sword with a bottle.

He has short blonde hair with a mustache, brown eyes, and his skin color was fair, but since it was cold outside, his skin was red.

Stephanie felt sorry for the little guy, nervously biting the bottom of her lip as she retracted her claws.

“Hey,” she softly spoke, reaching over to him with both of her hands. “Hey, look at me.”

He did as she told and tried to glance over at Stephanie from where he was.

But he was so weak he only glanced over at her with his eyes.

“Who…” he softly spoke between shivers. “Who are y-you?”

Stephanie gently picked him up from the ground and glanced around for anyone else.

“Don’t talk too much,” Stephanie assured him.

Then, she placed him back down on the ground in front of her.

He stayed quiet as she took off her scarf and wrapped it around his neck.

She repeated with her jacket, revealing her cybernetic half and only left with her long-sleeved shirt.

Stephanie tied the bottom, and the sleeves of her sweater to not get any colder inside to make him colder but left his head out slightly from her hood.

She still has her long hair red to keep herself warm, but Stephanie was more concerned about him than herself.

“Wh-Why did y-you do this t-to me?” he shuddered, still cold from underneath all the belongings Stephanie gave him.

“Because you’re cold,” Stephanie calmly answered, picking him up from the ground in his cocoon bundle and glanced around again. “Now, where did you come from?”

“H-Huh?” he asked, still shivering.

“Your village!” Stephanie exclaimed. “Don’t you remember your village?!”

Another gut-wrenching feeling hit her as another realization hits her.

“Flip, umbrella, cake, Kane!” Stephanie cursed loudly. “The village! They might be freezing their bums off from this condition of the weather!”

“H-Huh?” he repeated once again, sounding more confused. “What a-are you t-talking ab-bout?”

Stephanie glanced down at him after he had asked, before remembering something she learned from a Health class back when she was young.

“That’s right,” she sighed to herself worriedly. “Hypothermia includes confusion or memory loss.”

The young man in Stephanie’s arms still looked confused from what Stephanie was saying, as the color of her sweater started turning into different colors.

It was red, and other colors in the same shade, with black.

Stephanie turned to the left and started heading towards that direction.

“Okay,” Stephanie spoke to herself, mostly to the young man in her arms. “Let’s get you back to your village and try to see what is going on here.”

There was no response from the young man in her arms, and it made Stephanie panic a little.

She glanced down at what happened, thinking that he had passed already.

Instead, Stephanie noticed he had fallen asleep in her arms from the lack of strength.

A relieved sigh came from Stephanie as she continued through the forest, searching for the village the young man in her arms came from.

Her hair turned a darker red color than before, and her eyes turned red along with it.

Stephanie did not mind it but continued with her adventure.

After going past a few semi-leafless trees, Stephanie discovered a wooden fence surrounding something in the middle.

So, Stephanie walked up to the entrance of the fortress that was sealed off, hesitating for a moment.

Taking this time, Stephanie glanced around for a sign for when if she had something that might tick them off.

But there were no signs around to say that nothing was allowed inside.

Soon, her eyes fell to a wooden sign on the side that reads, “No Romans Allowed! (Except a few friends of ours.)”

Stephanie felt slightly nervous after she had read that little sign on the side of the fortress, still holding the knocked out man in her arms.

She does not feel like a friend to the people on the other side of the door.

But, Stephanie gathered her courage and took a deep breath.

Using her free arm, while the other was holding the knocked out young man, Stephanie knocked on the door of the fortress gently.

After knocking on the wooden door, Stephanie patiently waited for anyone to respond to her response, but nothing happened.

Confused, Stephanie knocked again on the wooden door, this time a little harder than before.

After a few knocks against the door, the third one was about to hit the wood when the landing made it shift a little.

Startled, Stephanie moved her hand back after the door moved from her third knock, before looking more concerned.

Placing her palm against it, Stephanie slowly pushed the door open with astonishing strength and glancing inside the fortress.

It was empty as a ghost town and had icicles hanging from everything around.

A shudder went down Stephanie’s spine as she continued glancing around, noticing the windows of each cabin were tightly closed, and every nook and cranny was sealed off.

Stephanie hummed to herself with confusion, wondering what was going on in the fortress.

“Hello?” Stephanie called out to anyone. “Is anyone here?”

No response to her call.

So, she walked up to one of the doors of the cabins she randomly picked and knocked.

“Hello?” Stephanie called out to the person in the cabin. “Is anyone inside?”

Still, there was no response to her call.

Stephanie lifted her hand up to knock on the door again when it slowly creaked open automatically.

A bad feeling sat in Stephanie’s stomach as she slowly opened the door widely.

The inside of the room was semi-warm, but not enough to keep someone from being too cold.

“Hey!” a weak voice called out to Stephanie, startling her as she stopped in her tracks. “Close the darn door! You’re letting the heat out!”

Stephanie glanced over her shoulder and noticed that she had left the door open.

“Oops,” Stephanie walked back over to the door and closed it. “Sorry about that.”

After Stephanie had closed the door behind her back, she walked more into the cabin, noticing at the end that there was no fireplace lit.

Thinking to herself, Stephanie carefully switched arms with the knocked out young man in her arms, moving him to her right arm.

Snapping the fingers of her left hand, Stephanie emitted a small light blue fireball in her hand to see what is inside the cabin, only to find that it froze in her palm.

“What the sugar, honey, iced tea?” Stephanie softly mumbled with confusion as the now iced blue fireball landed in her palm.

Dropping the iced fireball to the ground, Stephanie repeated to make some light, but it turned to ice again!

Huffing, Stephanie switched to using light instead of fire, emitting a small orb in her hand.

Once she got the orb of light in her hand, Stephanie patiently waited for it to freeze up like how the two previous fireballs had happened.

To her relief, nothing happened after she snapped her fingers.

Lifting the orb up over her head, Stephanie brightened it slightly to get a better look at what could be inside, only to see that there was a large group of people.

They were covered in boar skins on their bodies and huddled in one big hug, as there was a bigger lump in the back.

“Oh.” Stephanie cleared her throat and asked, “Did any of you know that this young man in my arms is left outside freezing cold?”

A head with red hair with a mustache and wearing a helmet with black and white feathers popped out from the big huddled group and asked, “What does he look like?”

Stephanie glanced down at him and answered, “Smaller than me and has blonde hair?”

The bigger lump in the back suddenly shot up after Stephanie described him, exclaiming, “Asterix?!”

Stephanie flinched after he exclaimed the name and stammered, “Y-You know him?”

He scrambled out of the boar pelts despite the coldness and everyone else and headed towards Stephanie.

The man wears a white helmet and a completely green colored belt, with white and blue striped pants and brown shoes.

He does not wear a shirt but has red hair with a mustache.

The ends of his long hair are put up into braids with small black bowties.

Before he could even get close to her, he suddenly stumbled a little and collapsed.

Stephanie gasped and knelt down to him, feeling worried about him as she moved her hand away from the light orb she made earlier.

“Are you alright?” Stephanie asked, placing a hand against his back.

He groaned in response to Stephanie’s question and glanced up slightly, seeing the young man cradled in her arm, named ‘Asterix.’

“What happened to him?” he groaned.

“He’s just had hypothermia from staying outside too long,” Stephanie assured him. “Now, what happened to this place?”

Another head popped out from the bundle, who has a long white beard with mustache, looking like an elder.

He spoke through chattering teeth, “F-First, b-bring Ast-Asterix over he-here.”

Stephanie nodded her head and walked around the stumbled guy and gave him to the man, as he shakily took him from her.

“Wh-What’s tha-at around h-him?” stammered another man from underneath the boar pelt.

“It’s my sweater.” Stephanie calmly answered before cringing to herself from her little slip.

“A sw-sweater?” stammered another voice.

“Explanation later,” Stephanie turned around to the man who stumbled out of the boar pelt.

She effortlessly picked him up from the ground with both of her hands.

The third head that popped out looked surprised that Stephanie effortlessly picked him up from the ground, but placed him in the bundle and wrapped him up from being cold.

“Alright,” Stephanie pushed back a strand of red hair from her face. “What happened in the forest?”

The third head paused for a moment after Stephanie asked, answering, “There’s a Roman camp that is near here that has most of the villagers inside, but has a powerful artifact inside that controls the weather.”

Stephanie gently cocked her head to the side with her eyebrow and asked, “What is this ‘artifact?’”

The elder pushed back the boar pelt over his head and answered, “We were surprised about the artifact too. It was the Greek god Zeus’ Sword of Lighting!”

Stephanie looked surprised by the answer the elder gave her, blinking a few times.

“The Sword of Zeus?” Stephanie softly exclaimed.

The elder nodded his head wisely.

“We discovered this before,” he explained. “Not long before you came here, Jules Ceaser, an evil Roman ruler, somehow stole all the artifacts that hold all the power each god has.”

Stephanie carefully listened to the story the elder is saying, as the others behind him curled up in the pelts to keep the warmth out.

“Not only had he stolen the artifacts from the Greeks,” the elder continued. “He apparently had stolen more artifacts from the temples on different islands that belong to our gods.”

“As if,” Stephanie paused a little, thinking to herself about the myths she had read about in books. “Like Odin’s eye?”

The wise elder nodded his head.

“That sucks.” Stephanie sighed before thinking to herself again. “Where’s the nearest camp of this first Roman attack?”

The wise elderly pointed his finger outside the cabin, towards the East.

“They have set camp there,” he pointed. “But I must give you some warning; the artifact they have could freeze you like a block. Many of our friends had that experience after the first and last attack.”

Stephanie shuddered gently from the warning he gave before he turned around and rummaged around in the boar pelts.

“You’ll need something during this dangerous task,” he added before reaching underneath.

“Hey!” grumbled a voice as he moved his hand around. “What are you doing?! You’re letting all the warm air out!”

“Excuse me for a moment.” He pardoned before grabbing something and pulled it out.

It is a bottle that is like a flask, except has a cork in the top.

“That’s the last of my potion!” the same voice exclaimed, as he placed the pelt down.

“I’m letting someone else borrow it for the moment, and…” when he turned back around, Stephanie was gone.

Except for the orb of light hovering in the middle of the cabin.

This time, the door was closed, and no cold air was inside the cabin.

“Never mind.” he sighed, reaching underneath the pelt and giving someone back the flask.

But, on the other hand, he was worried about that strange woman wearing strange clothes.

“I hope she is alright,” he softly spoke to himself as he pulled the boar pelt over his head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stay tuned for the next chapter!


	2. The Roman Patrol P.1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stephanie reached the camp and decided to go in without a fight, which came up unexpectedly...

Stephanie continued going through the snow-covered forest, still searching for the campground the elder said it would be.

She went through bushes that are semi-bare and zoomed past empty fields.

After a few minutes of running, Stephanie stopped when she saw something strange about the outside of the forest.

The other side of the forest was green and not covered in snow.

The sun was shining, and there were no clouds in the sky.

Except for the forest, that is.

It made Stephanie feel confused as she stared at the scenery change.

Glancing up at the camp, Stephanie squinted her eyes a little, noticing there was something inside.

Since the sun was shining brightly, Stephanie could see there was someone inside, holding what seemed to be a sword in the shape of a lightning bolt.

The figure inside was waving the sword around at the other people that were inside the tent with him.

They looked like they were yelling at each one of them.

Instantly, Stephanie realized it was the sword that the elder was talking about!

The Sword of Zeus!

Stephanie hummed to herself gently in thought, before glancing around for anything to get inside the camp.

As her eyes scanned around for a way, Stephanie then heard voices from the front of the gate. 

Glancing at what was the voices coming from, Stephanie noticed that two Roman guards were arguing about something. 

The skinny Roman guard was stamping his foot repeatedly as the fat Roman guard was pointing at him with the spear in his hand.

Stephanie felt confused about what they were arguing about but shrugged and decided to go through the camp the hard way.

She cracked the knuckles of her hands and reached up to her long hair and wires, putting it up into a low ponytail.

Stephanie even took off her glasses and placed them in a bubble, before tapping the top of it, teleporting it somewhere safe.

After her items were teleported away somewhere safe, Stephanie walked up to the front of the Roman camp, acting calm as she approached the two arguing Roman guards.

They were speaking English, and their voices sounded angry, mostly at each other.

But, one of them had an Italian accent in his voice.

Stephanie ignored their argument and walked up to them before stopping and placed her hands behind her back.

The first Roman guard has orange eye color with tan skin, and from underneath his helmet, Stephanie could see that he has red hair.

The second Roman guard has steel-blue eye color with fair skin, and from underneath his helmet, Stephanie could see that he has hazelnut brown hair.

She waited for a few minutes for them to stop arguing until one of them glanced over at her and glanced back at the argument.

Then, he looked at Stephanie at a second look.

“Don’t look away from me!” snapped the angry skinny Roman guard. “Look at me when I am talking!”

“Uh,” the fat Roman guard glanced over at the second and mentioned over to Stephanie with his hand that has his spear inside. “We have someone here.”

“That doesn’t matter!” snapped the angry skinny Roman guard as Stephanie rolled her eyes. “I’m arguing with you because you have-”

“Excuse me?”‌ Stephanie spoke, interrupting their argument. “Can I ask something?”

The angry skinny Roman guard growled in frustration and finally turned around to Stephanie, screaming, “WHAT IS IT?!?!”

Stephanie frowned in anger after he had snapped at her, smacking him hard across the face that he was knocked out in an instant.

After he was smacked across the face, the angry skinny Roman guard landed back first against the ground, and Stephanie sighed, pushing up one of the sleeves of her shirt.

“May I ask now?” Stephanie repeated herself, growling slightly in her words.

“Yes,” meeped the fat Roman guard.

Stephanie slowly turned around towards him and asked, “May I enter inside with a brawl?”

A slightly confused expression appeared on his face after Stephanie asked, repeating, “Are you meaning that you want to enter inside the camp forcefully without peace like the Gauls?”

Stephanie nodded her head, mentally smirking to herself about the village people’s name.

“That’s what I was trying to say,”‌ Stephanie sighed. “Now, may you please move out of the way?”

He fearfully nodded her head as he shook in his armor, moving to the left as Stephanie had commanded him to do.

Once he had moved out of the way, Stephanie repositioned herself and placed her hands against the door, saying with a smirk on her face, “Showtime.”

With that, Stephanie pushed the door off the hinges and entered the campsite.

The other Roman guards that were in the campground glanced over at her with confusion and surprise.

Stephanie glanced around at the people inside, smirking to herself and rubbed her hands together.

“Let’s get the party started,”‌ Stephanie smirked to herself.

A Roman commander busted out of the main camping tent in the back and noticed Stephanie standing there.

He growled with anger and reached into his side from underneath the cape.

Stephanie watched with confusion and amusement as he took out a sword, shaped into a thunderbolt.

“ATTACK!!!” he screamed, pointing the thunderbolt-shaped sword right at Stephanie.

Stephanie looked undaunted after he pointed the sword at her, but was surprised by the bellowing command from the general.

Immediately, every Roman soldier that was resting went to the battle against Stephanie.

They charged at Stephanie at full tilt, aiming their spears at her as their shields protected them.

Smirking, Stephanie quickly brought out her claws, and with one sweep of her hand, she scratched the pointed tips of the spears, making the soldiers stop dead in their tracks with shock written on their faces.

Once Stephanie had scratched the tips of the spears off, Stephanie used her left hand and said, “ _ Succendam! _ ”

After she said that in Latin, a large gust of wind blew them away by magic, making all of them collapse like a stack of cards.

The general looked surprised from the power Stephanie has, before growling and bellowed, aiming his sword at her again, “GET HER! DON’T LOLLYGAG!‌ JUST DESTROY THAT FREAK!”

Immediately, Stephanie’s right hand clenched into a fist, and her eyes narrowed.

“Excuse me?!”‌ Stephanie snapped at the general. “What. Did. You. Call. Me?!”

Stephanie bared her sharp teeth towards the general with anger on her face, and the soldiers suddenly cowered before her.

“You heard me!” the general snapped back at Stephanie, not cowering any coward like the soldiers. “Freak!‌ You don’t belong in this-”

Before he could continue his sentence, Stephanie tackled him to the ground with surprising strength and punched him in the face.

She repeated her fists with right and left, bruising his face until it turned black and blue.

He even dripped some blood during the process, too.

Then, Stephanie grabbed him by the ankles and hurled him over her shoulders.

“DON’T!” Stephanie bellowed with anger as she hit him against the ground after each word. “CALL! ME! FREAK! EVER! AGAIN!”

With that, Stephanie flung the general out of the campsite.

He zoomed up into the air and disappeared into the sky.

She was still in her rage after the general insulted her, so, Stephanie turned to the other Romans.

They were still cowering in fear because of her and after what she had done to the general.

Stephanie bellowed at them, revealing her sharp teeth towards them and pointed her finger out of the forest.

“THE REST OF YOU!” Stephanie bellowed in rage. “GET OUT OF THE FOREST, NOW!!!”

Immediately, they ran after the general she had tossed, leaving behind their armor, spears, and other items.

Once they all ran away, one was left behind, as Stephanie turned around in a huff.

She placed her fingers against her temples, gently rubbing them with the tips.

“Okay, okay, Steph,” Stephanie mumbled to herself. “You need to get yourself together.”

During that time, the second Roman soldier she was talking to earlier at the entrance, slowly walked up to her, although a little scared to make her angry.

By his side were two other Romans, except one of the soldiers had long dark blonde hair, emerald-green eyes, and lightly almond skin color.

The other was skinny, but not too thin like the one at the entrance.

Underneath his helmet, he has short dark brown hair, fair skin, and has light steel-blue eye color.

They glanced at each other after Stephanie had forced everyone out of the campsite, before back over at Stephanie.

“Are you alright?” the second Roman guard asked.

Stephanie heard his voice and moved her fingers away slightly, sighing.

“No,” Stephanie groaned. “I lost my temper with that general.”

“Which was a good thing, that is.” the skinny Roman soldier spoke. “He was being a big brute.”

Stephanie turned slightly toward them and asked, “Why?”

“Err,” the skinny Roman guard stammered. “He rarely gives us any food, treats us with respect, and so on.”

She turned around towards them and continued listening to their words, calming down a little from her temper.

“But I am glad that you defeated him,” he congratulated, before holding his hand out towards Stephanie. “My name is Cubitus.”

Stephanie mentally chuckled at the name but shook his hand.

“Stephanie,”‌ Stephanie greeted back. “Stephanie Nova Rose Allen.”

She turned her attention to the other, asking, “And, who’s this handsome man?”

He blushed slightly from the remark Stephanie gave, and he answered, stammering a little, “Cyprian is my name.”

“‘Cyprian.’”‌ Stephanie gently repeated as she released Cubitus’ hand. “I like that name.”

Cyprian blushed more from the second remark as the fat Roman guard who she met before at the entrance cleared his throat, and said, “My name is Infirmofpurpus.”

Stephanie once again mentally chuckled at the name before shaking his hand.

“Pleased to meet you all,” Stephanie smiled gently.

Then, her super hearing heard something heading for them, so Stephanie took a step back, confusing them.

“Why did you step-?” Before Cubitus could finish his sentence, something landed in front of him and stuck into the ground, startling him as he screamed and jumped into Infirmofpurpus’ arms.

Cyprian jumped away from the object after it hit the ground, as Stephanie only flinched.

In front of all of them was the Sword of Zeus.

“By Zeus’ name, that was close!” Cubitus exclaimed, before slowly getting out of Infirmofpurpus’ arms. “Is that the sword General Brutus was holding?”

Stephanie nodded her head in response and stared at the sword for a moment, before reaching over at it with her right metal hand.

“What are you doing?” Infirmofpurpus worriedly asked.

Stephanie said nothing, but reached over to the sword and gripped the handle.

“What are you, crazy?!” exclaimed Cyprian. “You’re going to-”

Before he could finish his sentence, Stephanie’s long red hair turned yellow, and electricity sparked from her fingers.

Her eyes turned white, and her shirt changed into the color of butter.

Stephanie’s pants turned into the color of medallions.

Her shoes turned into the color of bananas, as her shoelaces changed into the shade of butterscotch.

After the color of her clothes had changed, Stephanie lifted the sword up into the air.

She pointed the sword at the clouds that were over the forest of the Gauls.

A zap of electricity sparked from it, electrocuting the dark clouds in the distance.

Cyprian, Cubitus, and Infirmofpurpus yelped after the thunderbolt hit the clouds, ducking a little.

After the thunderbolt hit the dark clouds, they looked over to what had happened, seeing the clouds had disappeared into thin air.

They all sighed in relief after Stephanie pointed the Sword of Zeus over at the clouds and not them.

When they glanced over at Stephanie to check if she was okay, they were surprised to see she disappeared into thin air!

“Where did she go?” Cubitus whimpered in fear.

* * *

Meanwhile, Stephanie blinked her white eyes in confusion, before glancing around at her new surroundings.

Everything around where she was standing was decorated murals that are either carved on rock.

Some of them are created out of mosaics too.

Each mural was a picture of the god Zeus, using his powers and his creativity.

There were even stitched murals of him, including the sword that was in Stephanie’s hand.

The sword’s scabbard was hanging from her belt underneath her shirt, maybe it was magically placed on there once after she was teleported.

“ _ Well done! _ ” a voice bellowed in the background, startling Stephanie as she positioned her feet quickly and pointed the sword at who could have made that noise. “ _ Whoa! Calm down, Stephanie! Come on up here and bring me my sword! _ ”

Stephanie calmed down somewhat after the voice exclaimed, hesitating for a moment about who it could be.

But, Stephanie shrugged her shoulders and placed the sword back into its sheath.

After the sword had been back into its sheath, Stephanie stepped up the steps of the temple.

There were many steps inside, but it was not enough to make Stephanie complain about any chafings or aching limbs.

She was used to walking up and down the stairs repeatedly.

Soon, Stephanie entered another part of the temple, seeing Zeus sitting on a chair in front of her.

He looked like he was over 20 or 30 ft tall if he was standing on his feet.

In front of him was a pillar that was at Stephanie’s chest height, looking empty without the sword.

Stephanie approached the pillar and took the sheath off of her belt.

After she took the sheath off from her belt, Stephanie placed it on top of the pillar.

Once her hands were off the sheath, her hair, and wires, clothes, and eyes returned to their former colors.

But, her hair turned brown instead of red, and her eyes returned to steel-blue.

“ _ Thank you, Stephanie, _ ” Zeus thanked her, as the sword in the sheath slowly floated up from the pillar and grew to his size.

Once his sword returned to his size, Zeus grasped the sheath in his hand.

He stood up from his chair and placed it on the belt of his armor.

“ _ I have been waiting for this for a long time. _ ” Zeus sighed.

Stephanie knelt down on one knee towards Zeus, being polite towards him.

Zeus noticed Stephanie’s politeness and chuckled gently, lifting his hand up and said, “ _ No, no, you may be informal. There is no meeting here. _ ”

Stephanie slightly blushed with slight embarrassment after he had explained, standing back up to her feet.

“ _ But, there is something to tell you, _ ” Zeus added. “ _ Have you heard of Julius Caesar? _ ”

Stephanie nodded her head, answering, “I have heard his name from the elder in the Gaul village, but not who he looked like.”

“ _ Ah, _ ” Zeus reached up with his hand and gently brushed his fingers through his long white beard. “ _ Getafix must have told you about what had happened. _ ”

Stephanie nodded her head politely and asked, “Is it true?”

Zeus nodded his head before frowning in anger as he slammed his hand against his chair’s arm.

She flinched slightly from the anger she felt from him, as sparks of lighting flicked from his eyes.

“ _ He has disturbed all the gods and goddesses’ temples and stolen all of our artifacts! _ ” Zeus bellowed in anger. “ _ Now, my best friend Thor is throwing a temper fit back in Asgard now since he lost his Mjölnir because of him! _ ”

Stephanie pursed her lips gently at the thought of getting Thor’s Mjölnir because of his temper fit and could get hurt from him.

Zeus sighed as he rubbed his temples as the electricity died down slightly from his eyes.

Stephanie could guess a lot is going on, and they are losing their powers quickly, sending the world into despair.

After a few minutes of silence, Stephanie gently suggested, “Maybe I could help you all get your artifacts back?”

He glanced over at Stephanie after she had suggested.

“I could use your artifacts to restore the world back from its destruction,” Stephanie explained. “Rescue the Gauls from their unwanted punishment and return them back without abusing them like the others are.”

Zeus hummed to himself in thought, rubbing his long beard with his hand, slowly digesting the words Stephanie explained to him.

“And,” Stephanie added. “I may give you all that you wanted for yourselves.”

Zeus perked a little at the deal, asking, “ _ What is this ‘gift?’ _ ”

Stephanie smiled from the ask and clapped her hands together before summoning a bubble before her.

Inside the bubble has a large gemstone inside that is cut into a cube shape.

In the glistening sunlight, it looked like it had the colors of the rainbow.

Zeus’ expression on his face changed from confusion to absolute shock, as his jaw hit the ground.

“ _ I-Is that the-? _ ” Zeus stammered with surprise.

Stephanie nodded her head while smiling.

“Yep!” Stephanie smiled. “It’s the Gem of a Thousand Colors and the most pricey one, including powerful!”

Zeus looked excited as he shifted in his seat, looking like he had ants in his pants.

“Ah, wait a moment,” Stephanie spoke, moving the bubbled gem behind her back. “What about the deal?”

He stopped for a moment and thought about it, before smiling and said, “ _ Deal! _ ”

Stephanie smiled and said, “But, let me gather all the artifacts first before giving this to you, okay?”

Zeus nodded his head excitedly, and Stephanie tapped the top of the bubble, teleporting back to her safe place.

Then, she remembered the glasses that she had taken off before the fight, summoning the same bubble that has it inside.

Stephanie popped the bubble with both of her hands, taking the glasses inside and placed them back on.

“ _ Alright, _ ” Zeus stood up from his chair, and the pillar in front of him disappeared into a cloud. “ _ First, let me give you something in return for giving my sword back. _ ”

Stephanie looked slightly curious about what gift he would give her and watched as he knelt down in front of Stephanie.

Stephanie did not flinch after he had knelt down in front of her but looked slightly confused as he pulled a bracelet out from his pocket.

“ _ Give me one of your arms, _ ” Zeus commanded, as Stephanie obeyed with slight confusion, lifting her right hand up towards him.

The bracelet in his hand magically shrunk down to Stephanie’s wrist size, and he placed it on her wrist.

The bracelet Zeus placed on her wrist was created out of gold.

It also has empty gem grooves that circled around the band.

Each one of them was in different shapes, and Stephanie could guess that each gemstone might be in different colors.

Zeus gently tapped the bracelet on Stephanie’s wrist with the tip of his finger, as Stephanie watched with curiosity.

The empty thunderbolt gem slot was magically filled with a yellow gemstone after Zeus tapped her bracelet.

“ _ Here, _ ” Zeus smiled. “ _ Use my power wisely and take good care of the Gauls. They need all the help you can give. _ ”

Stephanie nodded her head and bowed towards Zeus, saying, “Thank you, your highness.”

With that, Stephanie disappeared from the temple in a flash of lighting.

* * *

Meanwhile, Cyprian, Cubitus, and Infirmofpurpus were searching for Stephanie through the deserted camp, before hearing a thunderbolt crack through the air.

Startled yelps came from them after the thunderbolt came, glancing around for what lit up in flames.

“Cyprian?” It was Stephanie’s voice! “Cubitus? Infirmofpurpus? Where are you guys?”

They looked out of the tent they were searching through and noticed Stephanie, looking confused and normal.

There were no signs that she ran off to hide the sword somewhere else or in another fight with more Roman guards.

Her long hair was brown along with her eyes steel-blue, and on her right wrist was a bracelet.

“Where were you?!” Cubitus exclaimed. “We were looking for you!”

“Well,” Stephanie glanced away, blushing slightly. “Are you up with a long story while returning to the village of the Gauls?”

Cyprian’s, Cubitus’, and Infirmofpurpus’ expressions paled with fear.

“Us?” squeaked Infirmofpurpus.

“With them?!” exclaimed Cubitus as he ran up to her and grabbed the stomach area of her shirt. “You are insane! The Gauls hate us! They use their magic potion to smash us into bits!”

Stephanie looked confused and surprised from the panicked explanation Cubitus explained to her, gripping the front of her shirt at her stomach.

“Listen,” Stephanie assured them, placing her hands on Cubitus’ shoulders as he slowly released her shirt. “They have not eaten anything for a long time. Besides, from what I heard from Getafix, they are low on their magic potion.”

Surprised expressions appeared on their faces after Stephanie explained.

“Would it be fair if you all attacked them without their potions?” Stephanie asked, shrugging her shoulders slightly.

They were silent for a moment, glancing at each other, and said, “True, that is not fair.”

“It is like fighting dirty.” nodded Infirmofpurpus. “But why are you worried about them? You’re…” he paused as he looked at Stephanie with judgment. “Different.”

“Is that a problem about being different?” Stephanie asked with a hint of annoyance, crossing her arms over her chest.

“No, no, no, no!” panicked Cubitus, moving in front of Infirmofpurpus protectively. “He’s meaning you are not like them! You are not a Gaul!”

Stephanie at first looked confused and suspicious about the protection Cubitus did to Infirmofpurpus, before softly chuckled.

She glanced away from the three Roman guards for a moment, before glancing back to them and placed her hand against her chest and said, “Yes, I may not be a Gaul, but I am like them.”

Confused and worried expressions appeared on their faces.

“I like having some fights, and I like eating a lot,” Stephanie explained. “And I like protecting my home from invaders that do not understand ‘no.’”

All three blushed slightly in embarrassment.

“Besides,” Stephanie knelt down slightly to their heights. “It doesn’t matter if I am like them or not, they are family, and I respect that. Now, it’s your turn to understand what it means.”

With that, Stephanie stood back up to her feet and walked away, exiting out of the deserted camp.

“Uh, Stephanie?” Cyprian asked. “What about the camp?”

“Oh!” Stephanie walked back to the site. “I forgot about that.”

Stephanie cracked her knuckles and went to work, bubbling items and tapping the top of the bubbles, teleporting them somewhere else.

Cyprian’s, Cubitus’, and Infirmofpurpus’ expressions on their faces were surprised by what they were seeing, watching Stephanie repeat the same process over and over.

“How is she doing that?” Infirmofpurpus asked.

“I honestly don’t know,” answered Cubitus. “I think it’s witchcraft.”

Soon, the last of the camp was bubbled and teleported somewhere, as Stephanie sighed and rubbed the bottom of her spine.

“Alright,” Stephanie turned around and started heading back to the now non-covered in the snow forest. “Let’s head back to the Gaul’s village.”

Cyprian, Cubitus, and Infirmofpurpus panicked, gasping and running over to Stephanie.

“A-Are you sure about this?” Infirmofpurpus whimpered.

“What if she is lying?” Cyprian asked the two cowering soldiers.

All three shrugged to themselves and continued following Stephanie.

Soon, they reached the Gaul’s village and noticed that there was no one inside, except for the feeling that it was a ghost town.

All of them shuddered from the feeling as Stephanie bravely entered, glancing around.

“Where’s everyone?” shuddered Cubitus as his knees knocked together.

“Maybe they are asleep?” whimpered Infirmofpurpus.

Stephanie shook her head no and said, turning around towards them as they were halfway in the village.

“No,” Stephanie worriedly sighed. “There might be something going on with them.”

She ran up to the chief’s cabin and opened the door, as an angry voice yelled out to her, “HEY! YOU’RE LETTING THE HEAT OUT! CLOSE THE D-!”

Before the villager could finish his sentence, Stephanie fully entered the cabin, as a groan came out of it.

“I’m so hungryyy!” complained a familiar voice.

Cyprian, Cubitus, and Infirmofpurpus gulped simultaneously, knowing who that voice belongs to.

“I know you are hungry,” Stephanie assured from the inside of the chief’s house. “I brought some food from that camp I went to.”

“You finally got food?!” exclaimed another voice, as the sound of blankets moving.

“Yes, but all of you need to get out from under the pelts,” Stephanie spoke again. “I don’t know if it’s enough to keep you all well-fed, but it is enough to feed all hungry mouths.”

Cyprian, Cubitus, and Infirmofpurpus glanced at each other for a moment, before back at the chief’s cabin.

They are curious about what is going on from inside the chief’s house.

But at the same time, they are worried about being attacked by the Gauls.

Slowly, they all walked up to it, before peering through the door.

To their surprise, they watched as Stephanie summoned a bubble that contained all the food inside.

And all the food was from the camp that Stephanie went to first.

So, Stephanie popped it, as the food landed on the table, and a roasted chicken landed in her arms.

Once the roasted chicken landed in her arms, she gave it to one of the villagers who were near her.

“What about the other half?” the chief asked, pointing a turkey leg at the other half.

Stephanie gently scooped it up in her arms and answered, “It’s all for Asterix. Do you know where he is?”

One of the villagers mentioned over to the fireplace, saying, “He’s over there. Obelix was keeping him warm with all of his body heat while you were gone.”

“Thank you,” Stephanie thanked, before heading towards the fireplace.

Cyprian, Cubitus, and Infirmofpurpus glanced at each other with surprise, astonished to hear what the chief said.

They thought the Gauls were cruel and heartless, but the explanation the chief said blew their minds away!

Obelix, the name of the biggest villager there is, worriedly looked over at a half-awake and half-asleep Asterix, still halfway bundled in her sweater and other winter gear.

He was not eating anything but was sitting by Asterix.

From underneath Stephanie’s sweater and winter gear, she noticed that his skin was not red, but in a neutral color, and he was not shivering anymore.

His helmet was off and placed to the side.

Even the hood of Stephanie’s sweater wrapped around him that was covering his head was off too.

Stephanie sat down in front of him, and he glanced over at her, looking suspicious of her at first before a growl came from his stomach that caused him to curl up slightly.

“Are you hungry?” Stephanie politely asked.

He stubbornly did not answer her question, but eventually nodded, as another growl came from his stomach.

Stephanie softly smiled and reached into the bubble, grabbing one of the food items inside.

She pulled out an apple and held it out to him.

“Here,” Stephanie offered it to him. “Eat this first. Start out slowly before you eat the rest.”

Obelix glanced away from Stephanie as she kept the apple in her hand out for Asterix.

“You’ll get your turn later,” Stephanie chuckled softly.

Obelix nodded his head and glanced over at Asterix, nervously rubbing his arm.

Asterix hesitated for a moment after Stephanie had offered the apple to him, but eventually, his hunger overcame him, and he gently took the apple from her hand.

Stephanie smiled as she watched him slowly eat the apple in his hand like how Stephanie told him to politely.

Pushing her glasses into place, Stephanie patiently waited for him to finish his apple in his hands before moving on to the next one.

“How are you feeling?” Stephanie asked.

“A little cold.” he finally spoke between bites, answering Stephanie’s question.

Stephanie hummed to herself gently and glanced over at the fireplace next to her, noticing there were logs inside, but it did not look like it was lit up.

Snapping the fingers of her left hand, Stephanie finally emitted a small fireball of flame and placed it into the fireplace.

The fireball lit the logs up into flames after a few minutes passed.

Asterix gasped softly after seeing Stephanie lit the fireplace up for him before blowing the fireball out from her palm when she brought her hand out.

He was halfway done with the apple in his hand.

Stephanie glanced over at him after he gasped, moving her hand away from the fire pit.

“What?” Stephanie asked, sounding confused.

Obelix moved his head close to Stephanie and scanned her body up and down.

“You don’t look like a druid,” Obelix remarked.

Stephanie realized what they were talking about and chuckled.

“Listen,” Stephanie placed her hand against Obelix’s chest and gently pushed him back, with surprising, but gentle force. “I’m not a druid.”

Stephanie snapped her fingers, and the orb of light that was floating in the air came flying towards her hand and hovered over her left hand.

“I’m a mage.” Stephanie extinguished the orb in her hand, before snapping her fingers, turning the candles on. “What’s wrong with a druid, by the way?”

“The last druid we met,” Asterix explained after he threw the apple core into the fire, sitting up slightly from his position and reaching for the bubble that has the bubbled food items inside. “Was not a good druid.”

Stephanie looked confused after Asterix explained, before noticing he was trying to get another food item out of the bubble next to him.

“What happened to him?” Stephanie asked, reaching in the bubble and took out a leg of a cooked chicken, handing it over to Asterix.

“Well,” Getafix walked up to Stephanie as she repositioned herself from kneeling on the ground to sit. “He was once a wonderful druid like me, but since he did not get what he was thinking of, he turned evil and used dark magic, resulting in him using firepower, just like you, ma’am.”

Stephanie glanced down at her hands in thought, snapping the fingers of her right hand, as it lit up in fire around her hand.

Usually, Stephanie is used to using her left hand to use magic.

But, with her right hand, she uses it for dark magic like him.

She does not use it for evil, unlike him, but uses it for good.

Stephanie magically distinguished her fire around her hand as Asterix ate through the turkey leg, saying, “Well, it’s his own fault for turning evil.”

Getafix nodded his head in agreement, and Stephanie was about to stand up to find the next Roman campground when someone grabbed her right hand.

Stephanie flinched after someone grabbed her wrist and glanced over at who did it, seeing Asterix holding her wrist.

“W-Wait a moment,” he stammered slightly. “I want to come with you.”

Stephanie looked confused after he asked, sitting back down on the ground.

“Why?” Stephanie asked.

“Because I’m not sure you could be safe out there the second time,” Asterix explained, trying to get up from the ground, as the other free hand took off her scarf.

Sighing, Stephanie placed her left hand on his shoulder, saying, “Listen, the first battle I was in had Zeus’ sword. That is powerful. I defeated that guy in an instant and returned the sword back to where it belongs without using this ‘magic potion.’”

“She’s not wrong, you know,” Infirmofpurpus spoke, attaching everyone’s attention.

Stephanie winced to herself after Infirmofpurpus spoke, as Asterix looked suspicious, and looked like he was getting ready to attack.

“What are you three doing here?” demanded the chief.

Immediately, all the Gauls got ready to pound them into the ground.

“Uh, we, um,” they all stammered simultaneously, as their knees knocked together.

“I brought them here, sir,” Stephanie answered for them before the Gauls attacked. “Since they don’t see eye to eye with that last general who I defeated, they decided to tag along with me.”

All three nodded in agreement.

The chief hummed to himself for a moment, before turning his attention to Stephanie.

“Who else followed you than the three you brought?” he asked, pointing the turkey leg at her.

“No one else,” Stephanie answered. “Just them. I ordered the rest to evacuate immediately.”

“In a rage,” added Cubitus.

Stephanie’s cheeks blushed a light neon pink color after Cubitus added, as Asterix released her wrist.

“Okay,” Stephanie admitted as she rubbed the back of her neck. “I might have lost my temper with him, but I did earn this from the gods.”

She pushed her sleeve down of her shirt and revealed the bracelet around her wrist to the Gauls.

Everyone’s jaws dropped with sheer shock, as some that were drinking water did a spit-take.

“This happened after returning the Sword of Zeus,” Stephanie explained, before turning to the three. “Remember what happened after I grabbed it?”

They glanced at each other after Stephanie asked them, looking slightly confused.

Then, Cyprian answered Stephanie’s question, “You transformed into a lighting goddess, right?”

Stephanie shrugged her shoulders slightly.

“I guess.” Stephanie sighed. “But that is what happened.” She pushed the sleeve down over her bracelet. “If I return each artifact Julius Caesar stole from the temples of both Vikings and Greek gods and goddess, I might restore your village and the world from his destruction.”

The chief hummed to himself after Stephanie explained to him, as Asterix thought to himself for a moment too.

“You’re right,” nodded the chief. “We could be facing a more powerful threat.”

“Vitalstatistix!” exclaimed Asterix, as he scrambled to get out from Stephanie’s winter outfit and her sweater.

But, he tripped over the sweater, mostly stumbling from his weakness and fell into Stephanie’s arms.

“Wait a moment!” Stephanie exclaimed. “Asterix, you’re not fully charged yet! You need to wait for a little to get some strength.”

“If we wait here,” Asterix spoke. “We might get the undead after us!”

Stephanie gasped softly from the response from Asterix.

“You mean they have Hades’ helmet?!” Stephanie exclaimed, almost dropping Asterix out of surprise.

“Yes,” nodded Cubitus. “Caesar not only has Hades’ helmet, but he also has Athena’s spear and shield, Poseidon’s trident, and so on.”

Stephanie sighed and glanced down at her wrist of her right arm.

There was a reason for all the gem slots!

Stephanie’s left arm was holding Asterix, who was shakily standing on his feet.

“That is the reason why we have less and less food and less clean water,” nodded Getafix. “Most of our livestock and the boars have been disappearing recently.”

Picking Asterix up from the ground, Stephanie thought to herself for a moment before mumbling to herself, “That means that all we have to do is to defeat is the generals that have Poseidon’s trident, Hades’ helmet, Artemis’ bow, and quiver, and Dionysus’ cornucopia.”

Getafix thought to himself for a moment before asking, “But, it is wise to get the generals who first have Poseidon’s trident, Artemis’ bow, and quiver, and Dionysus’ cornucopia?”

Stephanie paused after Getafeix suggested, agreeing, “That’s a good idea! Thank you, Getafix!”

Getafix looked slightly surprised from the response Stephanie said to him, before glancing down at Asterix.

“But,” Stephanie glanced up at Getafix. “Asterix wants to come along with me in case if I get hurt. And I feel sorry for him having to be left behind after a fight.”

Getafix paused for a moment after Stephanie explained her feelings about him, before saying, “Well, you are a magic user, aren’t you?”

Stephanie recognized what he meant and smacked her forehead with her right hand, feeling stupid for not realizing it.

“Thank you,” Stephanie thanked again. “It seems like forgetting some things are always getting out of my head.”

Getafix softly chuckled as Stephanie shifted him to her right arm, holding him gently and placed her left hand against his chest.

“ _ Sana, _ ” Stephanie spoke in Latin, as her left hand started glowing a light blue color.

Asterix watched with confusion as her hand glowed for a few minutes, before stopping, and she removed her hand.

Stephanie placed Asterix back down on the ground, and he was surprised he could walk without being weak.

Then, Stephanie turned her attention to Obelix.

“What about you?” Stephanie asked politely.

“Just need some food, and I’ll be back on my feet,” Obelix answered.

Stephanie nodded her head gently and popped the bubble that contains half of the food for Obelix.

“Go ahead and have the rest of the food.” Stephanie smiled.

Obelix clapped his hands in excitement and started eating through the pile of food.

Stephanie gently chuckled as Obelix ate through the food, before kneeling down to Asterix’s height.

“May I have my sweater back?” Stephanie asked.

Immediately, Asterix’s cheeks turned the color of cherries.

Stephanie chuckled and assured him, “Don’t worry, it’s nothing personal. Just helping a friendly stranger.”

Asterix looked surprised from the assurance Stephanie told him, as Stephanie patiently waited for him to give her back her sweater.

Realizing what she was waiting for, Asterix fumbled slightly with her sweater, trying to get it off.

But no matter how many times Asterix tried, it did not come off!

Stephanie gently chuckled as he struggled with the sweater, looking like he was a cat stuck inside.

“Here,‌”‌ Stephanie reached over to him and helped him with the tied sleeves and bottom. “Let me help.”

Stephanie untied the sleeves first, and untied the bottom, before unzipping the sweater.

Once the sweater was off him with the other items, Stephanie placed it back on her body, zipping it back up.

“Alright,”‌ Asterix turned around and took his sword out of his sheath, pointing it towards the first Roman camp.‌ “Let’s get the first Roman camp!”

In the background, Obelix nodded his head after shoving his mouth with a piece of cake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stay tuned for the next chapter!


	3. The Roman Patrol P.2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stephanie teams up with Asterix and Obelix, only to have a few snags and an unexpected turn of events...

Stephanie continued walking through the wet forest, looking for any Roman camps.

Ever since the last one, Stephanie was a little uncertain about attacking the next one, since she lost her temper with the general.

But she took a deep and calm breath.

“Hey, excuse me?” Stephanie stopped in her tracks and turned around, looking over at Obelix, who was following her with Asterix. “We didn’t get your name back at the village.”

A light blush appeared on Stephanie’s cheeks when he mentioned that, chuckling slightly.

“Sorry about that,” she apologized as they came up to her side. “My name is Stephanie, Stephanie Nova Rose Allen.”

Obelix and Asterix looked confused as they glanced at each other, as Stephanie stopped a little when she noticed their reactions.

“What’s wrong?” Stephanie asked.

“It’s your name,” answered Obelix. “It doesn’t have an ‘ix’ at the end of the words.”

Stephanie thought to herself for a moment before chuckling softly.

“That’s because I am an American,” Stephanie explained, before glancing away from them, blushing again. “Do you mind if I explain why I look different and named differently?”

They nodded their heads, and Stephanie started the story while walking.

She explained to them about the helmet back in 2022 in the shop in Denmark during one of her adventures.

Stephanie also explained that after she had touched the same helmet that Asterix was wearing, Stephanie suddenly teleported into their time.

At first, they were skeptical about her story, but shrugged it off their shoulders and asked questions.

They asked if there were any Vikings left over, any Romans, or any villages.

Stephanie explained to them that there were not many Vikings left over, but there were decants and some Viking fairgrounds.

This made Asterix and Obelix perk a little from Stephanie’s explanation about what her timeline was like.

She told them what her life was like in her timeline, but paused a few times during the storytelling.

Occasionally, Stephanie would rub her right arm with her hand.

Asterix noticed this sign from Stephanie and asked her, which was off-topic, “Did you get that arm from an accident?”

Stephanie glanced at him after he had asked with a slightly puzzled expression on her face, before glancing down at her arm.

She moved her fingers for a moment as she stared at it before looking back at him.

“Yes,” Stephanie answered. “It was terrible.”

Asterix’s wings on his helmet drooped down after Stephanie answered.

“But, I can’t explain it,” Stephanie moved her arm down from looking at it, moving forward. “It brings back too much.”

Stephanie walked away from them after she had explained to him, but Asterix seemed to notice something from underneath her low ponytail.

Underneath looked almost like a strange symbol with tiny numbers.

Stephanie moved her hair over it from being stuck in her sweater and was hidden out of sight.

“What’s wrong, Asterix?” Obelix asked, noticing his suspicion.

“Nothing,” Asterix answered, shaking his head. “Step-”

Before he could call over to Stephanie, he stumbled a little from his footing, but luckily Obelix caught him in his hands.

Luckily, Stephanie heard him and turned around, noticing he was leaning against Obelix’s hands.

Stephanie quickly ran over to Obelix and asked, “What happened to Asterix?”

“He didn’t eat any more food!” Obelix panicked slightly. “I ate the rest of the food back in the village! I should’ve saved it for him!”

Stephanie placed her hand on Obelix’s shoulder and said, “It’s okay, it’s not your fault. Maybe my magic sweater pockets have something inside.”

Asterix lifted his hand up before Stephanie could reach into her pockets and said, “No, we need to keep moving.”

He got out of Obelix’s hands and forced himself to stand on his feet, despite his shaky legs.

“But, you only ate a chicken leg and an apple!” Stephanie exclaimed worriedly. “That’s not enough to keep you moving!”

She sounds as panicked as Obelix for Asterix’s health.

“If we stop to eat, the village might perish.” Asterix pointed out, walking past Stephanie and headed towards the direction. “We have to keep moving.”

Stephanie and Obelix glanced at each other after Asterix walked away from them, looking worried for a moment.

But, eventually, they followed behind Asterix, as Obelix was behind him just in for if he falls from exhaustion or hunger.

Soon, they reached the next Roman camp that was in another empty clearing.

When they took a step in the area, a strange odor came from it from the other side of the fortress.

‘What’s that smell?’ Stephanie thought to herself, sniffing a few times.

She could smell roasted turkeys, boars, chicken, and many other types of roasted meat.

Some smells of wine were strong too.

“Oh, that smells good!” Obelix remarked, moving forward slightly before Stephanie placed her hand against his chest.

“Wait,” Stephanie spoke. “Something’s not right.”

“What is it?” Asterix asked, cocking his head to the side.

Stephanie pointed at the entrance of the camp, and they could see there were no guards.

The last campground Stephanie went to, had guards guarding the entrance of the forest.

“That is odd,” Obelix remarked. “No Romans are guarding the entrance.”

Stephanie nodded her head in agreement and said, moving past some bushes, “Let’s take a look inside and see what’s going on.”

Asterix panicked a little and moved in front of Stephanie, saying, “Wait! We don’t have our potion with us from Getafix! Obelix can manage to defeat them, and I don’t know about you, but,” He took his flask off from his belt and shook it gently. “I’m out of the potion. Geriatrix has the last of the potion which he is back at the village.”

Stephanie rolled her eyes after Asterix explained to her about her plan.

She was slightly irritated at him for pointing out some obvious reasons why they should do another plan and making herself look less like an average person.

“Just follow me,” Stephanie sighed, walking past him and headed up to the entrance of the camp.

Asterix was surprised by Stephanie’s stubbornness as one of the wings on his helmet twitched.

Then, he groaned in frustration and marched over to Stephanie as she was almost close to the entrance.

Obelix followed behind him, looking slightly confused about what is going on between the two of them.

When Stephanie reached the entrance, Stephanie placed both of her hands against the door and pushed with one mighty heave.

She managed to open the door without using anything and peeked inside.

Behind her back, Asterix and Obelix were surprised at how powerful Stephanie was of how she was able to open the door without effort.

After Stephanie peeked into the fortress, she glanced over at them, with a confused expression on her face.

The aroma of the food from the other side of the fortress was powerful, but the odor of wine was intense.

“What is wrong?” Obelix asked.

Stephanie glanced over at them for a moment before glancing back inside the camp.

Then, she glanced back at them as she leaned her shoulder against the door of the campground, laughing.

“What’s so funny?” Asterix asked.

A Roman guard came out of the campground to answer their confused question.

He was drunk as he was holding a tusk that was filled with wine inside.

The Roman guard’s cheeks were red, and he looked at Asterix and Obelix, who looked confused.

“Hey, hic!” he hiccupped in his words. “Look who’s, hic, here!”

Stephanie was laughing in the background as her hand covered her mouth, watching as he stumbled over to the two confused Gauls, pointing at them with a finger.

“Did you both, hic, came for the, hic, party?” He asked.

“‘Party?’” Asterix asked. “When was this?”

The Roman guy did not answer as he drunkenly glanced at them, blinking with stupidity.

“I don’t know,” he answered while hiccuping between his words. “It’s just the, hic, general who invited all of us, hic, to a feast with wine.”

Stephanie perked from her laughter and came over to the drunk Roman.

She had an idea that could help Asterix to eat some food over his stubbornness.

She stood by Asterix’s side and asked, “Can you lead us to the feast? We’re actually invited by the general himself!”

The Roman blinked a few times, before grinning with a drunk smile.

“Sure!” he drunkenly beamed. “Anything for the… pretty lady!”

Stephanie looked surprised from the response the drunk Roman guard said, as he turned around and started stumbling towards the half-open entrance.

On the other hand, it looked stupid to Stephanie’s point of view, as she tried not to laugh.

Asterix and Obelix could not help themselves but chuckle from the stupidity too.

Soon, the drunk Roman guard entered the campground, and Stephanie, Asterix, Obelix went inside with him.

“Hey, guys!” he drunkenly called out of them. “We, hic, have guests!”

They all glanced over at the sober people, as Stephanie positioned herself slightly to attack them when they realized they were enemies.

Unfortunately, the drunk Roman guard that led them inside was so drunk, he passed out in an instant.

“Hey!” one of them exclaimed. “It’s the, hic, Gauls!”

Stephanie got herself ready to attack with Asterix as he fumbled with his sword a little, as Obelix positioned his fists.

But, they noticed they were extremely drunk.

They could not stand on their feet, and their spears were out of line.

Their shields were drooping slightly too, as some went onto their backs.

“Wow,” Stephanie chuckled. “They are both drunk and stupid.”

“Who are you calling stupid?” snapped one of the soldiers.

Another pointed at her with his spear and said, wobbling a little, “We are not… drunk!”

“Can you tell the time?” Stephanie asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Yes,” the drunk Roman soldier turned around to the sundial and said, repeating himself while pointing at it with the spear in his hand, “I am not… drunk!”

Stephanie could not help herself but laugh from the stupidity the Roman soldier said to the sundial, facepalming herself.

Obelix snorted for a moment after the Roman soldier snapped at the sundial before all of them passed out from the drunkness.

After a few minutes of laughter, Stephanie left Obelix to look for what could have given them the wine and the food.

They all did not know that Asterix had gone missing.

Stephanie walked up to the main tent and opened the curtain, as a wave of an overpowering stench of meat including wine hits her nose.

First, Stephanie was surprised by the overpowering smell, feeling like she had walked into a kitchen.

But, from the look of inside the tent, it looked like a buffet more than a kitchen.

There was food scattered all over the place, and there were goblets, including tusks.

Stephanie could guess they were filled with wine inside.

But, the most surprising thing, that takes the cake, was the passed out general in the back, snoring as his head was in the fruits, and in front of him was Dionysus’s cornucopia.

Stephanie glanced down at her bracelet from underneath the sweater sleeve and shirt, seeing the symbol was the same one of the cornucopia.

Smiling, Stephanie reached over to the cornucopia with both hands, ready to take it back to the gods.

Just before her hands could grab it, however, the general’s hand suddenly shot up from the table and grabbed it, making Stephanie freeze.

Slowly, he moved his head up from the plate of fruit, looking wasted and full.

“Leave it alone,” he growled. “It is mine!”

Stephanie yanked her hand away from him, resulting in getting her wrist to disconnect from her hand and in the Roman general’s hand.

He looked drunkenly surprised from the chain connected to her hand, but mostly to the disconnection to her arm.

Taking this chance, Stephanie flicked her arm to the chain, making it snap up and smacked him in the face.

He yelped out in pain after being smacked in the face from the chain and released her hand, covering the mark on his face.

Stephanie flicked her chain again to the left, as her hand grabbed the cornucopia and yanked it back with one swift move of her arm.

The general noticed her hand grabbed the cornucopia and tried to snatch it back, but his clumsiness made it difficult for him.

Besides, Stephanie’s fast tactics were also too fast for him.

Stephanie’s chained hand returned to her and clicked back into her arm, connecting into one.

After Stephanie had grabbed the cornucopia and returned her hand back.

Then, her clothes, eyes, and hair started again with the color-changing transformation.

Her long hair turned into the color of apricots, and her eyes turned orange.

The design of her sweater turned into leaves that are in the colors of bronze, honey, yams, fire, and amber.

The hems of her sweater turned into cantaloupes, and her pants transformed into the color of rust.

Her shoes turned into the color of sandstones as her shoelaces transformed into marigolds.

After the color transformation, Stephanie glared at the general with an angry look as her left arm held the cornucopia.

The general, on the other hand, looked scared of her, moving up from laying flat on the table.

His uniform was covered in food, and wine dripped everywhere from the struggling to get the cornucopia.

“Uh, check please?” he asked, looking worried.

Outside, Obelix was looking for Asterix, wondering where he could have run off too when he heard something smacked and an object coming out of something.

Then, Stephanie’s voice yelled out with anger, “EAT THIS INSTEAD AS DESSERT!”

With that, a thump was heard, and Stephanie marched out of the tent that has the general inside.

She was holding a cornucopia in her arm, and her face looked angry.

“What happened?” Obelix asked, turning his attention towards Stephanie.

But his face looked more confused when he noticed the color change of her hair, eyes, clothes, even the design of her sweater!

“Oh,” Stephanie answered with irritation as she jabbed her thumb over her shoulder. “The general in there got a little stuck in something. Best to have a quick look.”

Obelix looked confused as Stephanie left him and walked away as he glanced over at the tent.

He walked over to the tent and pushed back one of the curtains, before bursting into laughter.

Apparently, Stephanie shoved a pumpkin on his head as he was lying flat on the table that has food on it.

“Oh,” Obelix chuckled. “Now that’s funny, right, Asterix?”

Then, he remembered what he was looking for.

“Oh, Asterix!” He turned around and whistled, calling out, “Dogmatix! Here, boy!”

After he called out that name, the sounds of yipping came from the distance, and a small white dog with black-tipped ears and tail, came running over to Obelix.

He jumped into Obelix’s large hand, yipping happily and licking his face.

“Now, now, Dogmatix,” Obelix placed Dogmatix down on the ground. “Go and find Asterix.”

With that, Dogmatix yipped and ran off, sniffing the ground on his way.

Meanwhile, Stephanie was standing outside the campground, looking up at the sky in thought.

Taking the cornucopia from her arm, Stephanie aimed the cornucopia into the sky, and automatically, it fired light orange sparks into the air, before disappearing into thin air.

After that happened, Stephanie disappeared into thin air as Dogmatix passed by where she was, still sniffing the ground.

A confused expression appeared on the dog’s face for a moment before snorting and walking away, sniffing the ground again, searching for Asterix.

* * *

Meanwhile, Stephanie blinked and noticed she was teleported to another temple.

But, the temple has the same smell as the Roman general’s tent back at the campground.

The decoration was the same, with the carved rocks and the stitched murals like Zeus’s temple.

But there was food and barrels of wine decorated all around her and looked overplied.

No voice called out to her, so Stephanie shrugged her shoulders and went deep into the temple, glancing around.

A few times, Stephanie stopped to clear some food off the ground to continue walking, but it did not matter to her.

When she reached the central part of the temple, Stephanie saw Dionysus sitting on his throne, eating a platter of grapes that was held by a servant.

“Excuse me?” Stephanie called out to him.

Dionysus glanced over at her after Stephanie called out to him, and she bowed to him.

“I brought something back for you.” Stephanie smiled.

He cocked his head to the side, before holding up his first finger as if to wait a moment.

Stephanie nodded her head and patiently waited for him to finish.

After a few minutes of chewing the grape in his mouth, he gulped and asked, hiccuping a little, “ _ Is it my cornucopia? Or, hic, dubbed from the Romans, ‘The Cornucopia of Everlasting Festivals?’ _ ”

Stephanie nodded her head and stood up from her bowing.

“May I place it on your altar?” Stephanie politely asked, mentioning over to the altar with her free hand.

It was covered in food on top and had no room for the cornucopia.

“ _ Oh, hic, _ ” Dionysus snapped his fingers as a normal-sized servant came by and bowed slightly to him. “ _ Could you clear the food off? Hic! I really need to, hic, clean this place. _ ”

Stephanie rolled her eyes while he was distracted with slight amusement before walking up to the altar.

She placed the cornucopia on top of the altar, as the colors of her hair, eyes, and clothes turned back to their original colors.

Dionysus lifted his hand up, and one of the servants picked it up from the altar and gave it to him, after growing to his size.

He grabbed it with both of his hands from his servant and kissed it gently and gave it to another servant that was almost his size.

“ _ Thank you, hic, _ ” he thanked. “ _ Now, allow me to give you something in return. _ ”

Dionysus stood up from his chair, and stumbly walked over to Stephanie, kneeling down on one knee.

Automatically, Stephanie lifted her arm up and patiently waited for him to give her the gemstone.

With his finger, Dionysus gently tapped the bracelet Zeus gave her, and the cornucopia gem slot was filled with the missing gem.

After the gemstone was placed in that gem slot, he stood back up from the ground and said, waving his hand, “ _ Continue on with your work, hic. Oh, hic, one more thing; be careful with Poseidon’s trident. It contains a lot more power than any other powers. _ ”

Stephanie smiled and bowed to him again, saying, “I will, Dionysus.” and with that, Stephanie disappeared in a flash of orange.

He smiled to himself and leaned in his chair, saying, “ _ She is an interesting 21st-century girl. _ ”

Then, he snapped his fingers and called out, “ _ Hey, where’s my blueberry muffins?! _ ”

* * *

Meanwhile, Obelix continued searching for Asterix, wondering where he could be.

Not only that, now Dogmatix has disappeared too.

Obelix continued looking around for both of them when he felt something tapped his back.

“Obelix?” Stephanie asked.

He turned around and noticed Stephanie.

This time, Stephanie was back in the original colors that Obelix saw her before when she was walking with them through the forest.

“Oh!” he wrapped his arms around Stephanie tightly and started hugging her. “Don’t ever do that to me ever again!”

Stephanie looked squished against his stomach, but smiled sheepishly and said, through grunts to push away from him, “I got another, mhf, gemstone from the gods, Obelix!”

Obelix looked confused and finally released his grip around Stephanie, allowing her to be free from him.

She sighed after he had released his grip from around her body and pushed back a strand of hair.

“Look,” Stephanie pushed her sleeve down and showed him the gemstone. “See? That means the food returned!”

Instantly, Obelix remembered something.

“Of course!” he exclaimed, placing a hand against his forehead.

“What?” Stephanie asked, cocking her head to the side.

“Food!” Obelix answered. “Asterix maybe went off looking for food! The whole camp has food from that gluttonous general!”

Stephanie understood what he meant and said, “Which tent?”

They both thought for a moment before hearing a loud belch.

It was loud, but not monstrous.

“That was Asterix!” Obelix smiled before running off.

“Wait, Obelix!” Stephanie called after him, before running towards him.

Obelix reached the main tent where the general was inside, before opening the curtains.

There, standing in the front of the table, was Asterix, eating through a leg of a chicken.

Sitting next to him was Dogmatix, looking surprised at the empty tables that were once covered in food, but covered in apple cores, bones, except the dates that are left untouched.

He glanced up at Obelix once over his shoulder, before a second time.

“Oh, Obelix!” he beamed, his mouth, the tips of his fingers, and mustache were covered in food. “You should try this food! It’s delicious!”

Stephanie popped her head in the tent and was surprised at what she saw with Obelix, exclaiming, “Holy schnikes! Did you eat all the food?!”

Asterix looked confused and answered, turning his body towards them more, “Yes, why?”

“I was about to collect all of it to bring it to your village, so they could eat!” Stephanie exclaimed. “Mostly to let you have some since you stubbornly refused to eat earlier!”

Asterix immediately spat out what he had in his mouth out of surprise.

“Oops.” Obelix glanced away with a nervous expression on his face.

“By Toutatis!” Asterix exclaimed, before placing his food-covered face in his semi-messy hands. “I should’ve listened to you, Stephanie!”

Stephanie thought to herself for a moment, before glancing down at her wrist thoughtfully.

“Now that I ate everything from the camp, we are not going to find any more food without livestock!” Asterix moaned.

“Actually,” Stephanie spoke, kneeling down to his height. “I’m glad that you ate all that greedy general’s food.”

Asterix glanced up at her from his hands, looking confused.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

Stephanie smiled and reached into her sweater pocket, taking out a clean towel.

She gently took Asterix’s right messy hand and started wiping the food off.

“Listen,” Stephanie began. “I know you are stubborn and is a ‘village-first-me-later’ type of person, but sometimes you have to listen to your friends.”

Stephanie switched to the other hand and wiped the food off.

“As you know,” Stephanie spoke. “We were worried about you when you refused to eat. My plan was when we entered the camp and defeated the general, giving you some time to eat some food to get your strength back.”

Asterix blushed with shame as Stephanie moved from his hand to his face, gently getting food off from him with the towel in her hand.

“But, since you pigged out on all the food, I guess it doesn’t hurt to cook for the moment.” Stephanie chuckled after she had finished wiping the food off his face and hands.

“Cook for the village?” exclaimed Obelix. “How?! There’s not even a boar close by!”

Stephanie glanced over at them with a slight grin on her face and said, “Watch.”

She pulled her sleeve up from her right arm and revealed the bracelet.

Looking at the cornucopia gemstone, Stephanie tapped the gem with her finger of her left hand, as it glowed.

The color of her hair, eyes, and clothes changed into the same colors before.

Including the design of her sweater, too.

Stephanie glanced down at her sweater and smiled, “Hey! It worked!”

Obelix’s jaw dropped after the colors of Stephanie’s sweater changed magically.

“So that’s what happened?!” he exclaimed. “I thought you changed clothes and wigs!”

“Do I look like I’m wearing a wig?” Stephanie asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

Obelix shook his head no.

Stephanie sighed and turned to Asterix, who was leaning against the table and blinking sleepily.

“Are you alright, Asterix?” Obelix curiously asked, picking up his friend.

She chuckled and placed her hand against his side, saying, “He’s alright, just having a food coma.”

Obelix glanced over at Stephanie with a concerned expression on his face.

“What’s a ‘food coma?’” he nervously asked.

“It’s a feeling where you eat a lot, and after eating, you start to feel sleepy and fall asleep.” Stephanie described. “It lasts about an hour or more for Asterix to overcome his food coma.”

Obelix sighed in relief after Stephanie explained to him before he looked confused as they exited out of the campground filled with sleeping Romans and a knocked out general.

“How come I don’t get a food coma?” he asked.

“Maybe you have a bottomless pit?” Stephanie suggested with a slight chuckle.

Obelix blushed from the response Stephanie gave him, still carrying his sleeping friend in his arms.

After a few minutes of walking, Obelix asked, “Stephanie, do you normally eat as much as we eat?”

Stephanie paused for a moment as she thought, humming to herself.

“Not as much,” Stephanie sighed. “I don’t usually eat that often either. It only happens if I am upset over something or just hungry in general.”

Obelix thought to himself after Stephanie explained, as Dogmatix followed behind.

“What about you?” Stephanie asked in return, turning towards him slightly.

He glanced away for a moment before answering, “I sometimes sulk about it.”

Stephanie softly chuckled and pushed back a strand of wire from her face.

“Sometimes you could try talking about it to your friends, instead of sulking, Obelix.” Stephanie smiled. “It’s better to do that than to be quiet.”

Obelix blushed with embarrassment as he continued following after Stephanie, before reaching the village.

They were outside since everything was not covered in the snow anymore and looked hungry.

Stephanie felt sorry for them before remembering.

She walked up to the chief, named Vitalstatistix, sitting at the large table, hungrily staring at his empty plate.

“Excuse me?” Stephanie asked, standing in front of him.

Vitalstatistix glanced up at Stephanie and perked slightly, asking, “Did you bring food?”

Stephanie winced and rubbed the back of her neck with her hand.

She wanted to say that Asterix had eaten all the food back at the camp out of hunger, but she did not want to make Asterix look disowned.

But, Stephanie lied for Asterix to not make him feel disowned.

“The Romans guards back at the camp had eaten all the food,” Stephanie sighed. “There was not enough for feeding the village.”

Vitalstatistix sighed and placed his head in his hand as Stephanie continued rubbing the back of her neck.

Obelix felt confused about what Stephanie said to Vitalstatistix, but stayed quiet as silence fell between both of them.

“What happened to Asterix?” Vitalstatistix asked, mentioning over to sleeping Asterix with a finger.

“He passed out from exhaustion,” Stephanie lied. “I told him to wait until his strength returns. That healing only lasted for an hour or more to get more food inside.”

Obelix glanced away from Asterix in thought, wondering to himself why Stephanie kept lying for Asterix.

“What can we do now?” Vitalstatistix groaned, rubbing his forehead with his fingers.

Stephanie smiled gently and reached into her sweater pockets, pulling out something from inside, and showed it to Vitalastiatix.

It was a whole ham wrapped in cooking rope.

“I have magic pockets.” Stephanie smiled as Vitalstatistix’s jaw dropped out of shock. “It’s not cooked, but I would like somewhere I could.”

Vitalstatistix turned around and whistled, calling out, “Hey! Open the kitchen! She’s-”

“Stephanie,” Stephanie responded before he continued.

“Thank you. Stephanie’s going to cook for us!” Vitalstatistix called out, finishing his sentence.

Heads popped out of the houses of the village, looking over at Stephanie with confused expressions on their faces.

Even the three Romans Stephanie allowed them to follow her peeked out of a spare house with the same expression on their faces.

“‘Cook for us?’” repeated one of them. “How is she going to do that if she only has that ham in her hand?!”

Stephanie chuckled and reached into her pocket with her other hand, pulling out an onion from inside.

Their jaws dropped in sheer shock after Stephanie had pulled the onion out from her pocket.

“I have magic pockets!” Stephanie called out to them. “It’s easy! But there is a problem. I can’t bring anything bigger out of them, but someone could help me get them.”

Obelix placed Asterix gently down on top of an empty bench and walked over to Stephanie.

“What is it you want?” he asked.

Stephanie hummed to herself for a moment before snapping her fingers.

“All I need is fish, 6 or 9 big boars,” Stephanie explained as she tapped each finger of her left hand after putting the two items she had pulled out of her sweater onto the table. “And the rest I can do from my pockets.”

Obelix nodded his head and ran off into the forest, leaving a trail of dust behind his feet.

A fair-skinned man with blond hair in two braids, including a mustache, walked up to Stephanie.

He wears a no sleeved black-furred vest with a brown belt around his waist, red pants, and no shoes.

“How many fishes do you need, uh,” he asked, before pausing for her name.

“Stephanie,” Stephanie calmly answered as she continued reaching into her sweater pockets to pull out ingredients for the food. “Stephanie Nova Rose Allen.”

“‘Stephanie,’” he repeated in slight confusion before shaking his head. “My name is Unhygienix.”

Stephanie bit the bottom of her lip to not laugh from the names.

“Pleased to meet you,” Stephanie smiled, holding her hand out for him.

Unhygienix took Stephanie’s hand and shook it with slight confusion, noticing her metal hand.

“What happened to your hand?” he asked, tapping it with his finger.

The next man came over to see what Unhygienix was looking at, gently feeling her fingers.

He has short blond hair with a mustache and has fair skin color.

The second man does not wear a shirt but wears a brown smith’s apron, with red pants and brown shoes.

“It looks well crafted,” he remarked, rubbing his fingers. “It almost feels like real skin!”

Stephanie blushed slightly as she patiently waited for them to finish looking at her right hand.

By the feeling of their hands, Unhygienix’s hands felt like he had cut himself recently a few times as she could feel some scars.

Not only that, it felt slightly slimy, and a faint odor of fish came from it.

For the blacksmith’s hands, they felt rough, and hard, as there were some scars of burns.

There was a faint smell of soot and charcoal, including melted metal.

“I suppose one of you is a fishmonger, and the other is a blacksmith?” Stephanie asked.

Unhygienix and the blacksmith glanced up at her after she had asked.

“How did you know I was a fishmonger?” Unhygienix asked, pointing at himself as he released Stephanie’s hand.

“And me as a blacksmith?” the blacksmith asked, also releasing Stephanie’s hand and pointing at himself.

“Well,” Stephanie pointed at their hands. “By the feeling of your hands, one of them has a faint smell of fish along with cuts, as the other has some burn marks and odor of charcoal with melted metal.”

They both glanced down at their hands with a slightly confused expression on their faces, sniffing and feeling them.

“You can smell them?” Unhygienix asked in confusion.

“I have a good sense of smell.” Stephanie chuckled.

They both glanced at each other as Stephanie continued pulling out some more ingredients, struggling a little with her hair.

“Dang it,” Stephanie groaned, stopping and pushing back a strand of hair. “My hair is getting in my way.”

After Stephanie took a rubber band out of her sweater pocket and was about to put her long hair and wires up, when a voice asked, “Let us help you with that.”

Stephanie glanced down and noticed a group of beautiful young ladies standing behind her, as some were holding hairpins and others with combs.

The first lady was shorter and round than the others and looked beautiful.

She has fair skin and hazelnut brown eye color.

The woman wears a fuchsia tank top-like dress with black and white lines.

Underneath her long blond hair, she has small hoop earrings.

Topping things off, she wears brown slippers underneath her dress, and in her hands is combs.

The second woman has fair skin and beautiful emerald-green eye color.

She wears a lime green tank top shirt tied around the waist and a long flowing shamrock green dress that is in a mermaid’s tail style.

The dress has white lines, and her ears have hoop earrings, along with a bracelet around her left wrist.

Her long blonde hair was pulled up into a high bun and was holding hairpins in her hands.

“Oh,” Stephanie turned around to the two ladies and knelt down on one knee to them. “Thank you.”

The first woman smiled and handed the combs over to the second lady, starting on gently combing Stephanie’s long hair up into a bun.

She had turned Stephanie around to face back-first to her and kneeling down on the ground to let her work her magic.

Stephanie was surprised at how delicate her fingers were as she brushed her fingers through her thick hair and wires.

Then, she used the comb to put her hair up into a bun, being careful with scratching her.

Once all the strands of Stephanie’s hair were up, she brought her hand out and asked, “May I have that band in your hand?”

Stephanie slowly and carefully nodded her head and handed her the rubber band she had pulled out of her sweater pocket, patiently waiting for her to finish her magic.

At the same time, Stephanie kept a careful eye on the food, making sure no one in the village could eat it before she could cook it.

After she put the long hair up into a ponytail, she twirled it around in her hand as it reminded Stephanie of her mother.

Usually, when they are ready to go places, Stephanie would watch her mother put her long brown hair into a bun, twirling it around in her hand and placing bobby pins inside.

It made Stephanie feel a little homesick as the woman put her twirled hair up into a bun shape, being careful with her fingers.

Once it was up into a bun, she turned to the other woman and said, “Hand me a hairpin.”

She nodded and went through the hairpins in her hands, mumbling to herself thoughtfully.

“What about this one?” she asked, holding one up to her.

“No, too fancy.” the first woman shook her head no.

Stephanie listened to their conversation with slight curiosity, wondering what they were doing to her as she knelt there.

The second woman went through the pins again and held up another one.

“This one?” she asked.

“No, it looks ridiculous on her,” sighed the first woman.

“What about a moon-shaped one?” Stephanie suggested to the two.

A pause came from between the two, and the second woman pulled out a silver moon-shaped hairpin that has a Tanzanite gemstone on it as part of the moon.

“How did you know there is a moon-shaped hairpin?” the first woman asked, sounding as surprised as the second one.

“I guessed.” Stephanie shrugged her shoulders.

They both glanced at each other after Stephanie had answered their question before shrugging too.

The first woman put the pin into Stephanie’s bun, and underneath the rubber band she had handed over to her, clipping it tightly, so it would not fall off from her head.

Once Stephanie’s hair and wires were up into a bun with the hair clip, Stephanie stood up from kneeling to their height from the ground, stretching out a little.

“Thank you,” Stephanie thanked, bowing slightly towards them. “And may I add you both are gorgeous?”

Both women blushed from Stephanie’s remark, confusing Obelix as he was holding over 6 or 8 wild boars in his arms and over his shoulders.

“Er, thank you?” thanked the first woman.

“You’re welcome!” Stephanie smiled before turning around and went back to collect the ingredients.

Asterix, on the other hand, had finally woke up from his food coma and noticed Stephanie collecting ingredients for food.

Confused, Asterix got up from the bench Obelix placed him down on and stretched, before watching his friend walk over to Stephanie, holding wild boars in his arms and over his shoulders.

“Why did you flirt with those women?” Obelix asked, sounding confused.

“Well,” Stephanie began, blushing slightly. “I couldn’t help myself! They are very gorgeous!”

Asterix looked more perplexed as he glanced over at the two females that were in front of Stephanie, blushing slightly from the remark from her.

‘I must’ve slept past something that happened.’ Asterix sighed to himself as he rubbed his temple.

Obelix placed the boars down on the ground as they were knocked out and noticed Asterix awake and looking confused.

“Oh, you’re awake, Asterix!” beamed Obelix. “Stephanie has an idea of feeding the village!”

“What’s that?” Asterix asked, getting off the bench.

“She has magic pockets!” Obelix smiled before picking him up from the ground and turning him around. “Watch.”

Asterix watched as Stephanie reached into her pocket and pulled out a large cucumber from her pocket, looking at it for a moment in thought.

“Hey,” Stephanie called. “Does anyone want any cucumbers as a side since it’s going to take a long time?”

A pause came from the village after Stephanie asked, and she shrugged her shoulders.

“I guess that is a yes,” Stephanie sighed, placing it down on the table.

Asterix was more surprised than confused after Obelix explained and showed him what happened while he was out, blinking a few times.

“Okay,” Asterix rubbed the back of his neck. “This is getting more… confusing…”

He trailed off when he noticed something on the back of Stephanie’s neck.

Now that no hair or wires were covering it, Asterix could see it looked like a symbol.

It had many lines in a straight line across that moves down, but there were numbers underneath the symbol that Asterix can not see clearly since how faded it looked.

“Asterix?” Obelix’s voice slowly snapped him back into reality. “Asterix! What are you doing staring at the back of Stephanie’s neck?”

Stephanie immediately stopped after Obelix asked, reaching behind and felt the mark on the back of her neck quickly.

“Y-You were staring at it?” Stephanie stammered, clenching it.

Asterix blinked with confusion after Stephanie asked, responding, “Er, yes? Why?”

Stephanie fell silent for a moment, gently rubbing the mark on the back of her neck, saying, “Just… don’t ask about it, okay?”

Asterix felt like he wanted to ask about it, but instead, he responded with, “Alright, I won’t talk about it.”

Stephanie removed her hand from the back of her neck and went back to the cucumbers asking, “Excuse me? Can I borrow a cutting board?”

The blacksmith came over to Stephanie in an instant, holding what seemed to be different types of cutting boards that are made out of metal.

“Which one?” he asked, as Stephanie looked impressed at his ability. “I have plenty of these back in my workshop.”

Stephanie paused for a moment as she thought, wondering which one to pick.

“Ooh,” he picked up a more extended cutting board from the table in front of her and showed it to her. “This one is the perfect one.”

Before Stephanie could respond to his row of cutting boards, a lot of fish in different sizes, shapes, and colors landed on the left-hand side of the table, startling Stephanie slightly.

“Actually, what about these fish?” Unhygienix suggested. “They were stored recently before any of this happened in the first place!”

He picked up a large Rainbow Trout from the table and said, showing it to Stephanie, “This could be fine for a-”

“What about this cutting board?” suggested the blacksmith, showing a different board.

“That one?” scoffed Unhygienix. “It looked like some other tin, Fulliautomatix.”

“It’s not just some other tin!” Fulliautomatix, the name of the blacksmith, snapped. “It’s a cutting board that is-”

The sound of a knife slamming against a metal chopping board snapped them out of their argument and silenced everyone.

It caused them to glance over at Stephanie.

There was also a small crack noise that came from it too.

Recently, Stephanie had pulled out a knife from her sweater pocket, which was sharp, and looked like one that can fillet a fish.

“Enough,” Stephanie growled, seemingly calm without showing signs of immediate rage at the two. “This is enough for the feast for the village. Please move away so that you won’t get hurt.”

Without saying a word, they both put down the fish and the cutting board back down on the table.

They have shocked but terrified expressions on their faces, and walked away from her, looking scared of her.

“Wow,” remarked one of the ladies Stephanie flirted with. “She knows how to handle them easily.”

“Yes,” nodded the second lady. “I bet she is married to a man that is like them.”

Stephanie’s shoulders hunched up a little after they gossiped to each other about her, feeling like she is a stranger in a different world.

She was used to hearing gossip behind her back when she walks around, but this was the strangest she had ever heard.

Usually, people who saw her would make rude comments and spread rumors around that she is a monster or an alien in disguise to kill everyone.

Stephanie ignored them and continued with her work, starting with the vegetables.

Taking two peelers out from her sweater pocket, she absent-mindedly popped her second pair of arms out from underneath her first pair and started peeling them.

The peeling took Stephanie 3 seconds to finish, before moving onto the next.

She picked up one of Fulliautomatix’s cutting boards and started cutting the vegetables into regular-sized pieces for them to eat.

After stalling for a minute or more earlier from two Gauls that wanted to impress her, Stephanie was fixated on making the food.

That means she had canceled out what was going on around her.

In the background, Asterix, and the others, including the three Roman soldiers were surprised to see Stephanie’s second pair of arms working separately than her first pair.

They watched as Stephanie’s first pair grabbed some fish, and started working like how Unhygienix worked on cutting fish.

But, the second pair of arms worked on the meat Obelix caught.

She skinned them and took the organs out, placing them into a separate bowl and worked on the others.

Stephanie had her sleeves rolled up to her shoulders, along with her second pair, and continued working.

Despite the staring from behind her back from everyone else.

When she noticed she was being stared at, Stephanie sighed after cleaning the cutting board.

Without glancing over her shoulder, Stephanie asked, “Is there something wrong?”

Everyone snapped out of their staring and stammered, “No, no, not really. Just watching.”

Stephanie shrugged to herself and went back to what she was doing, as everyone watched again.

Once the last plate of vegetables was placed down on the table, Stephanie said while pointing at it with a finger.

“Go ahead and enjoy it,” Stephanie spoke while still fixated on making the rest of the food. “The rest will be coming soon.”

Everyone glanced over at the plates for a moment, before each one of them took one, except Obelix and Asterix.

Soon, Stephanie was rubbing seasoning all over the prepared boars and placed them over the fire, in separate positions.

When one of the boars was cooked, Stephanie placed it down for them to enjoy after they had eaten all the vegetables she had peeled.

Asterix and Obelix were surprised at how fast Stephanie was working on the food, placing down each freshly cooked boars for the village.

“Mamma mia!” exclaimed Infirmofpurpus. “She is fast!”

Asterix nodded his head in agreement.

“Ooh, those boars smell so good!” Obelix moaned gently.

“By the smell of it, yes,” nodded Cubitus. “I had never seen this before in my whole life!”

“What? Seeing a whole family of Gauls enjoying the food?” Obelix asked, mentioning over to the table with a hand.

Cubitus nodded his head in response.

“Me either,” shrugged Infirmofpurpus. “Usually, the ones we have at home are a little smaller than that.”

Obelix slightly grunted as he crossed his arms over his chest.

“I know,” he huffed. “I have been in the camp before.”

Confused expressions appeared on their faces after Obelix grunted.

“How in Zeus’ name did you get in?” Cyprian asked in confusion.

“Obelix was dressed like you were and was able to sneak in like that,” Asterix explained. “I was pretending to be his prisoner until things were out of hand.”

“Oh, I remember!” Cubitus exclaimed. “You were that smart Gaul in the area!”

Asterix blinked with confusion.

“You do?” he asked.

“Yes, I was there,” nodded Cubitus. “Well, stuck, but I did see what was going on.” he paused as he shuddered. “Those spiders were terrifying!”

Obelix shuddered slightly along with him too.

“Me, either.” Obelix agreed. “I don’t like them.”

Cubitus was surprised that Obelix agreed with him about spiders, feeling less tense but confused.

“Mamma mia,” shuddered Infirmofpurpus. “I was glad that I was on guard duty outside.”

Asterix rolled his eyes about the story of the area, before perking when he noticed Stephanie stopping after the last boar was given to the village, sighing.

Her hands were covered in food for preparing, almost reaching to her shoulders.

But the front of her sweater was not covered in any of it.

She walked away from the table, and Asterix, Obelix, Infirmofpurpus, Cubitus, and Cyprian followed behind.

Near the stream, Stephanie washed her hands and arms from being covered in seasoning, still having her long hair up in a bun.

During her washing, Stephanie’s clothes, the design of her sweater, hair, and eyes returned to their original colors.

She liked the hairpin the ladies gave her but wondered about keeping it since they allowed her to have it for the moment since she was cooking food.

Soon, Stephanie noticed there was a small group of people behind her, and she glanced over, seeing Asterix, Obelix, Infirmofpurpus, Cubitus, and Cyprian.

But, the most part was that her second pair of arms was out.

A blush appeared on her face when she realized she was caught.

“That was amazing back there!” Obelix remarked. “But, were you born with a second pair of arms?”

Stephanie glanced down at her second pair of arms and shook her head no.

“It’s… not normal for anyone else,” Stephanie slowly explained. “No more questions, please.”

Obelix looked slightly confused after Stephanie answered his question, continuing to wash her hands in the stream.

When she pulled her hands out, she noticed the water was staining her hands instead of cleaning it.

Confused, Stephanie glanced over at the stream and noticed that it was dirtier than clean.

“This must be the work of Poseidon’s trident,” Stephanie spoke out loud to herself, mostly to her friends behind her. “Guessing from my calculations, the next Roman camp that has the trident is northeast from here.”

Obelix beamed and happily clapped his hands together.

“Does this mean we could thrash some Romans?” Obelix happily asked.

Stephanie thought to herself for a moment before glancing over at Infirmofpurpus, Cubitus, and Cyprian, who is cowering in fear.

“Yes, but not these three.” They blinked in confusion when Stephanie said that, perking a little. “You may thrash the others, but not them. I have a feeling that they have more to understand what is truly going on.”

With that, Stephanie turned around and walked towards the direction she said where the next Roman camp is.

Infirmofpurpus, Cubitus, and Cryrian looked confused about what Stephanie said about them, as Asterix and Obelix followed behind them.

They wondered to themselves about what she meant by ‘understanding what is truly going on?’

But, they shrugged to themselves and followed after them, deciding to see what will be going on during the adventure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stay tuned for the next chapter!


	4. The Roman Patrol P.3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stephanie and her friends went to the next one, but something went haywire...

Stephanie continued walking by the dirtied stream, following where it leads to.

Asterix, Obelix, Cubitus, Cyprian, and Infirmofpurpus, along with Dogmatix, followed from behind her.

During that time, Stephanie took her glasses off again and bubbled them, before tapping the top of the bubble to teleport it to safety.

She had already defeated two generals that have the Sword of Zeus and the Cornucopia of Everlasting Festivals.

So that means the weather is gone, and food has returned to normal.

But, Poseidon’s trident is the next one for water.

When they reached the next Roman camp, Stephanie glanced over at the stream that was near the campground, watching clean water passing through it, then coming out dirty.

It irritated Stephanie as she growled, feeling angry at them for polluting the clean water for no good reason.

“They are really mean, aren’t they?” Obelix asked, noticing how angry Stephanie is.

“Yes, I agree,” Stephanie growled before pushing her sleeves up.‌ “Are you ready to give them a lesson?”

“Er, what about Asterix?” Cubitus asked, mentioning Asterix in front of him. “He does not have any potion to defeat them!”

Stephanie stopped after Cubitus pointed out about Asterix, like how he pointed it out before at the second camp.

Turning towards Asterix, Stephanie reached into her pocket and pulled out a long cloak.

“This cloak allows you to be invisible.”‌ Stephanie described. “While we are defeating the other Roman soldiers, you, along with Cubitus, Crypian, and Infirmofpurpus, go into the main tent and grab the trident.”

“Us?!” squeaked the three Romans, pointing at themselves.

“Yes, you,” Stephanie nodded, before wrapping the cloak around their bodies. “It’s best to be fast. The general might or might not follow after his troops, but if he is distracted, grab it as quick as you can and bring it to me.”

With that, Stephanie covered them in the cloak and ran off with Obelix.

After the cloak had covered them, the shawl disappeared into thin air with them underneath.

Meanwhile, Stephanie creaked one of the doors opens and popped her head inside, calling out to the Romans inside, “Hi! Do you mind if we do something?”

“What’s that?”‌ asked one of the Roman soldiers.

Stephanie only replied with a smile, that looked like a mischievous smile, and moved away from the door.

After moving away from the door, someone pushed the door open, ripping it off from its hinges with one mighty shove.

After Obelix had opened the door forcefully, he rubbed his hands together with a smile on his face, saying, “Ooh, boy!‌ You won’t believe how much excitement I am in!”

The Roman guards cowered as Obelix punched, smacked, and flung Romans around, making them look like armored rockets firing into the air.

Stephanie, on the other hand, almost did the same thing like Obelix, except she did not fling them into the air, but knock them out.

A few times when they are in a turtle formation, Stephanie would use spells to blow them away from their organization, taking chances to attack.

Sometimes, when she seems a weaker version of a Roman soldier, Stephanie would instead bash the stronger ones and leave the weak one alone.

Meanwhile, four pairs of footprints were walking by the battlefield, as three looked like they were in sandals, while one was in leather.

Underneath, Asterix, Cubitus, Crypian, and Infirmofpurpus were sneaking towards the main tent, following Stephanie’s idea.

They were impressed that the cloak worked, as the three Romans behind Asterix nervously watched as soldiers flew everywhere, landing on the ground and smashing through other tents.

“Ow, you stepped on my heel!” Asterix winced quietly.

“Sorry,” Infirmofpurpus apologized.

When they were close to the main tent, they watched as a soaking wet general came out from inside, noticing the battlefield and growled.

He took out his sword and pointed at Stephanie, including Obelix, calling out, “ATTACK!”

After that, more Roman soldiers came and entered the battlefield along with the general.

Asterix and the others took this chance and snuck up to the main tent.

Before Asterix could move his hands up to open the tent, a feeling inside him told him that this was too easy.

So, he instead opened the tent a little, noticing that there were two buff Roman guards inside, protecting Poseidon’s trident, that was aimed down into the water and dripping what seemed to be gunk.

Asterix shuddered slightly with disgust after peeking and closed the tent, thinking to himself.

“What now?” Cubitus shrugged as he whispered. “We got two big goons inside that will beat us to nothing!”

Asterix thought to himself after Cubitus groaned, thinking of another way to go through the tent without being caught by the two guards.

“Maybe if we could act like a ghost and sneak ourselves into the tent?” Cyprian suggested, shrugging his shoulders slightly. “I mean, we do have a cloak that is invisible that was given to us from Stephanie.”

Asterix perked after Cyprian suggested, glancing over at him.

“That’s a good idea!” Asterix smiled before opening the tent.

Once Asterix opened the tent, he, along with the Roman soldiers behind him, snuck around the two Roman brutes, talking to each other in Greek.

Asterix could not understand what they were saying in Greek, but the three behind him understood what they were saying.

“Πιστεύετε ότι ο Καίσαρ έχει όλα τα όπλα?” one of them asked in Greek.

“Δεν γνωρίζω.” the second responded. “Είναι το σχέδιο του Καίσαρα και το ακολουθούμε. Ποιος ξέρει ποιος θα είναι ο επόμενος ηγέτης μετά από αυτόν.”

“Ναι, αλλά τι γίνεται με αυτόν τον πυροσβέστη Somniferus μιλούσε πριν από 2 χρόνια,” the first one suggested. “Το τελευταίο πράγμα που άκουσα από αυτόν ήταν ότι είχε βυθιστεί στο βυθό του ωκεανού.”

The second Roman guard nodded his head in agreement, and behind them, they did not know there were four pairs of footprints walking around them and heading towards the trident.

“Έχετε ακούσει πρόσφατα τις ειδήσεις?” the first Roman guard asked.

“Τι είναι αυτό?” the second guard asked.

“Υπήρχαν νέα σχετικά με αυτό το ‘αλλοδαπό κορίτσι με περίεργα μαλλιά’ που καταστρέφει και τα δύο στρατόπεδα που είχαν το σπαθί του Δία και το κέρας του Διονύσου.” the first guard answered.

“Πραγματικά?” the second guard asked again.

“Ναί,” nodded the first guard nodded. “Ο Caesar χάνει σιγά-σιγά την ψυχραιμία του με τον καθένα που νικήθηκε από αυτήν. Αργά ή γρήγορα, ελπίζω ότι θα… από πού προέρχονται αυτά τα ίχνη?”

Cubitus, Crypian, and Infirmofpurpus immediately stopped after they heard the last of the sentence asked, covering their mouths in fear.

Asterix glanced over his shoulder before he could part the cloak to grab the trident, noticing their scared expressions on their faces.

Before he could ask, Cubitus covered his mouth out of fear with his other hand, as footsteps inched close to where they were.

The armor of the guards rattled gently after each step they took, as the sound of a sword coming out of the sheath hits their ears.

A muffled whimper came from Infirmofpurpus as a footstep inched closer to where they were feeling like deers in the headlights.

Before they were caught, the tent opened again, and the general’s voice bellowed, “YOU TWO!”

Outside, the two Roman guards stopped after the general bellowed, glancing over to the entrance.

“What are you two doing?!” he snapped. “Are you fighting each other?!”

“No!” one of them exclaimed, speaking English. “We were-”

“I DON’T CARE OF WHAT YOU TWO ARE DOING!” the general continued bellowing before pointing outside the tent. “GET YOUR REAR ENDS OUT THERE AND FIGHT!”

“What’s going on?” one of them asked in confusion.

Groaning, he marched over to them and grabbed their ears from underneath the helmet.

“I’LL SHOW YOU ‘WHAT IS GOING ON!’” he screamed in their ears before dragging them outside.

After the general stomped outside with the two Roman guards in his hands, the cloaked figures sighed once he was gone, removing their hands from their mouths, including Asterix’s.

“By Zeus, that was a close one,” sighed Crypian.

Asterix nodded in agreement and reached out of the cloak, gripping the trident’s handle.

After gripping the trident’s handle, Asterix took a step back, taking the trident out of the stream.

Once the trident was out of the stream, it stopped producing garbage but started turning clean.

Suddenly, the cloak was ripped off from them, startling the three behind Asterix.

The general noticed them as he had the cloak in his right hand, glaring as he saw Asterix with the trident in his hands.

“GIVE THAT TO ME!” he bellowed, dropping the cloak from his hand.

He grabbed the trident with both of his hands and used his strength to tug it back.

Asterix struggled to keep his feet on the ground, yanking the trident back away from the general as he was using all his force.

“YOU THREE!” he bellowed, pointing at Cubitus, Crypian, and Infirmofpurpus behind him. “COME HERE RIGHT NOW AND HELP ME WITH THIS PUNY GAUL!”

They glanced at each other after he had asked, before moving behind Asterix and grabbed the trident on his side.

“YOU’RE ON HIS SIDE?!?!” the general exclaimed in anger, his face turning red.

“We quit!” snapped Cubitus.

“Exactly!” Infirmofpurpus growled along with Cubitus.

“Take this instead!” Cyprian lifted his leg up and smacked the general square in the groin, avoiding his leg from hitting Asterix.

The general was in so much pain; he released the trident, as Infirmofpurpus smacked him hard across the face with his hand.

He collapsed on the ground with a handmark on his face and covering his groin with his hands.

Asterix sighed in relief after Cyprian and Infirmofpurpus hit the general, pointing the trident down to the ground.

Infirmofpurpus waved his hand that he smacked the general with, as there was a red mark on his palm as he hissed softly to himself in pain.

Outside the tent, Stephanie punched one of the Roman soldiers out of the way, wondering what could be taking Asterix, Cubitus, Cyprian, and Infirmofpurpus so long?

Suddenly, something zoomed out from the tent, ripping through the ceiling and into the air.

Water splashed all over the battle, as it wove through the air, as screaming came from the object.

“Yizus, what was that?!” Stephanie exclaimed, glancing up at what it could be.

Then, it pointed down and started heading towards the battle.

“INCOMING!” one of the Roman soldiers exclaimed, moving out of the way.

Stephanie and Obelix were about to do the same when the object collided into Obelix’s stomach and went into the air, leaving a long trail of water behind.

“Oh, flip, umbrella, cake, Kane!” Stephanie exclaimed before running.

She picked Dogmatix up from the ground during that moment, holding him close to her chest with one arm.

The object whizzed, turned, twisted, and dived through the air, as Obelix was on the front, as there were four more on the handle.

One of them was clenching the handle, while the three were holding onto the first one.

After a few minutes of dodging the object, Stephanie stopped when she noticed the Romans clenching onto the first person.

They were the people who Stephanie sent inside to grab Poseidon’s trident!

After stopping, Stephanie waited for the right time to grab the trident before any harm came to them, as they went around in the air like a balloon.

Then, they dove towards Stephanie as she waited for the right timing.

Just as she moved to the side from the trident, Stephanie quickly grabbed the handle and used her weight to pin it down to the ground.

But, just as she tried to do it, she was lifted into the air with it instead.

She yelped with startlement after her feet had left the ground.

After grabbing the trident, Stephanie’s color transformation happened again.

Her long hair turned dark blue as the left-hand side of her head had separate colors in the same shade.

Stephanie’s sweater turned dark blue with other separate colors in the same shade as her hems turned into a lighter blue than frost.

Her blue jeans turned into a darker blue color, and her shoes turned light blue with blue shoelaces.

The design of her sweater transformed into the shapes of raindrops that overlap each other.

Her eye changed into a darker color of steel-blue.

After struggling with the trident in everyone’s hands for a moment, Stephanie finally managed to aim the trident to the sky.

She had some help with her friends as they struggled too.

Once it was pointed to the sky, a massive water drop came from it and disappeared.

Stephanie sighed with relief after it was shot into the sky before coming to realize they were not on the ground.

They all screamed as they plummeted back down towards the ground, as Infirmofpurpus hugged Cubitus out of fear.

Stephanie could not use her wings at this time to rescue everyone from their plummeting death because she had no time to do it.

Before Stephanie could use her second opinion, Stephanie and the others disappeared into thin air before landing to the ground in a flash of rain clouds.

\---

Meanwhile, a long lake of water was gently splashing against a long line of rocky stairs.

Suddenly, in the distance, something splashed into the lake, causing the surface to ripple.

Stephanie’s head came up from the surface, coughing as she climbed onto the stairs, dripping wet as her long hair covered her face.

In her right hand was the trident Stephanie was trying to get, as it glowed slightly.

Soon, Asterix, Obelix, Cubitus, Cyprian, Infirmofpurpus and Dogmatix followed behind her, coughing water from their mouths, and scrambling onto the stairs.

Stephanie moved her head up after everyone had been out of the water, placing the trident down, and with her left arm, she moved her long blue hair from her face, checking everyone.

“Is everyone okay?” Stephanie asked, after coughing some water from her mouth.

“Other than being wet?” Asterix asked, taking his helmet off, shaking his head slightly. “We’re fine.”

Stephanie chuckled as Dogmatix shook his body, shaking the water off from his fur.

“Careful!” Stephanie smiled before reaching over and patted Dogmatix’s head. “You’re going to slip.”

Stephanie glanced back over to the others, as Cubitus, Cyprian, and Infirmofpurpus had no armor on their chests.

“Hey,” Stephanie spoke. “Where’s your armor?”

“We took it off because it was drowning us,” Cubitus answered. “Asterix had to help us with it.”

Stephanie glanced away from them, blushing slightly with shame of not helping them.

“Sorry,” Stephanie apologized out of the blue.

Confused, Cyprian glanced over at Stephanie and asked, “Why are you sorry?”

“Well,” Stephanie began as she turned towards them. “Instead of helping Asterix of getting the armor off from you guys, I instead swam up to the surface.”

Stephanie’s hand gripped on the trident.

“I am sorry if it seemed like that.” Stephanie apologized, glancing away from them.

If she has pointed ears or a long tail, they would be flattened and flicking sadly.

Asterix understood her guilt for not helping any of her friends, reaching over to her and placed his hand on her water-soaked sweater.

“It’s okay, Stephanie,” Asterix assured her as she glanced over at him. “Next time, think before doing your actions.”

Stephanie paused after Asterix assured her, glancing away from him, before nodding her head quietly.

Once everyone stood up from the ground, Infirmofpurpus lightly complained as he shook his sandals, “I hate wet sandals.”

Stephanie agreed with him because her shoes were wet, and she hates it.

But, Stephanie ignored them and started up the steps.

The group that went with her on the mission followed behind her, glancing around at where they are now.

The murals were wet and soaked like their bodies, as water dripped from the ceiling, soaked the stairs, and the walls were wet too.

“What is this place?”‌ Obelix asked, glancing around.

“This is the temple of Poseidon,” Stephanie answered calmly. “The trident I am holding belongs to him.”

Cubitus, Cyprian, and Infirmofpurpus simultaneously gulped with fear.

“Does he have a… temper?” Cubitus asked nervously.

Stephanie stopped at the top of the stairs and glanced over at her friends.

“Unless he doesn’t know that you three did help Asterix to get the trident in the first place,” Stephanie suggested. “But you’ll see sooner or later once we enter inside.”

They glanced at each other warily before following Stephanie to the main room of the temple.

Once they had entered into the central part of the temple after Stephanie, they were surprised to see that everywhere had water fountains.

Rain dripped from the ceiling of the temple, covering them in the water again.

But, sitting at the throne in the back of the temple, dripping wet with water, was Poseidon himself.

Cubitus grabbed Infirmofpurpus’ hand out of fear as he gripped it tightly.

Infirmofpurpus took Cubitus’ hand as he shook from head to toe.

Stephanie bravely stepped up to Poseidon and said, holding the weapon out to show him, “Hello, I have brought back your trident.”

Poseidon was quiet as Stephanie placed the trident down on the altar in front of her.

The altar was covered in water, and dripping wet.

After Stephanie’s hand released the trident, her original colors returned to normal.

She stepped back as Poseidon lifted his hand up, taking the trident back as it grew to his size, as he gripped it.

“ _ Thank you, Stephanie. _ ” He thanked before noticing the three Romans behind Asterix, Obelix, and Dogmatix. “ _ Who are they? _ ”

The three jolted when he noticed them, as Stephanie glanced over at them.

“Oh, they are friends of ours,”‌ Stephanie answered, causing them to perk up from being scared. “The last general they were with was the last straw for them and decided to join us.”

They glanced at each other with surprised expressions on their faces, wondering why an ‘alien’ said that about them.

Poseidon thought for a moment after Stephanie answered his question, before smiling gently.

“ _ Then, they are going to have a long time of understanding. _ ” He nodded.

Stephanie nodded in agreement and held out her right arm, which had the bracelet on.

Poseidon remembered something and stood up from his chair, slipping a little from the wet ground.

Underneath his uniform, he does not have any sandals on but is barefoot.

Cubitus’ grip on Infirmofpurpus’ hand tightened in fear, as Infirmofpurpus mumbled, “Mamma mia…” softly to himself as he moved his right hand over to protect Cubitus.

Cyprian stood bravely behind them, keeping an eye on Poseidon in case he decided to drown them in the water.

Asterix, Obelix, and Dogmatix were surprised at how tall Poseidon was, before watching him as he knelt down in front of Stephanie.

He tapped Stephanie’s bracelet with his finger, as a gemstone was added in the trident shaped gem slot.

“ _ There, _ ” Poseidon smiled. “ _ Now that you have water and the other ingredients, for Getafix to make the potion for the village. _ ”

Stephanie nodded her head as she moved her arm back down and bowed to Poseidon, saying, “Thank you.”

Asterix, Obelix, and Dogmatix did the same thing, as Cubitus and Infirmofpurpus followed behind, doing the same thing while hugging each other.

Cyprian did the same thing, too, from behind them.

After they had bowed to Poseidon, they all disappeared into a flash of rain clouds as Poseidon sat back down in his chair.

“ _ Strange… _ ” he softly mumbled to himself. “ _ That young girl seemed to be really strange with knowing how to use magic very well. _ ”

\---

Meanwhile, at the village, Getafix was stirring something in a pot with a spoon, until he heard something wet smacked on the ground.

And, it sounded like it was from outside his hut.

Confused, he glanced out of his door, only to see Stephanie, Asterix, Obelix, Dogmatix, Cubitus, Cyprian, and Infirmofpurpus soaking wet.

Stephanie’s long brown hair was covering her face, as leaves were covering some parts of her body.

“Why does this happen to us?” complained Cubitus, moving back some of his hair from his face.

Stephanie shrugged in response after Cubitus complained, as Asterix walked up to Getafix.

“Is the potion ready?” he asked.

“Almost,” Getafix responded. “All I need to do is the final touch.”

He paused a little as he stared at the three confused and mostly worried Romans, before saying, “Don’t let them in or peek through the windows.”

The Romans understood what he meant and turned around, as one of them asked, speaking in Greek, “Πιστεύετε ότι είμαστε σε μεγάλο πρόβλημα?”

“Εξαρτάται.” another responded. “Αλλά, ελπίζω αυτό που λέει η Στέφανι να είναι αλήθεια.”

They nodded in agreement before seeing a flash of yellow came from Getafix’s hut, causing them to turn around to see what was that.

Getafix opened the door of his hut and said, calling out to everyone else, “Now it’s finished!”

Stephanie smiled softly and watched as each one of the villagers lined up to get their bottles filled with the potion.

In the back of Stephanie’s head, she wondered what the potion can do to her if she ingested some of it.

After Asterix had filled his flask, except for Obelix to Stephanie’s confusion, Stephanie asked, “Why didn’t you get your flask filled?”

“Well,” Obelix blushed, glancing away from Stephanie. “When me and Asterix were little, I fell into Getafix’s potion, and it resulted in me being strong without the potion.”

“What happens if you ingested the potion?” Stephanie asked with curiosity. “Even if it was a little drop?”

Obelix slightly groaned as he glanced back over at Stephanie.

“I get out of control.” Obelix sighed.

Stephanie understood him and gently patted his back the best she could.

“I understand that same thing,” Stephanie assured him. “Sometimes, my anger or my other emotions get the best of me too. So, I learned how to repress them, even though I hate it.”

Obelix felt a little better from Stephanie’s assuring, before Getafix came out, asking, “Stephanie?”

Stephanie perked a little, and Getafix said, “Would you perhaps now like to have the potion I have made?”

Confused, Stephanie nodded her head and walked up to Getafix, as Obelix grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest.

She entered inside the druid’s hut, glancing around with impression, before noticing the potion as it shimmered with a golden gleam.

“Whoa,” Stephanie remarked. “This is cool.”

Getafix smiled softly and asked, “Do you have something to contain the potion inside?”

Stephanie nodded her head and reached into her pocket, pulling out a metal thermos flask from her sweater pocket, that has a blue rose design around it.

Getafix looked confused after Stephanie pulled out the metal thermos flask from her sweater pocket.

“Something wrong?” Stephanie asked, moving the thermos away from him.

“No,” he sighed, shooking his head no. “Nothing wrong. May I have that flask?”

Stephanie nodded and gave him the flask as he filled with the potion he made.

Once Stephanie’s thermos was filled, he screwed the lid back on the thermos and gave it back to Stephanie.

“Just to remember,” he warned Stephanie before she placed the thermos filled with potion away. “Do not drink too much of the potion, or else it will turn you into stone and do not give it away to someone you don’t know or to the enemies.”

Stephanie nodded her head and finally placed the thermos into her sweater pocket, as it disappeared when it got inside.

Getafix looked confused after he saw the thermos disappear in Stephanie’s sweater pocket before she exited out of the hut.

“Okay,” Stephanie spoke. “Now that we have our potion, food, and clear weather back, what’s next?”

Something banging against the entrance of the village answered their question, glancing over to it.

“LET US IN!!!” shrieked a voice.

“I WANT MY MOMMY!” another cried out in fear.

Stephanie ran over to the door, as Asterix and Obelix followed behind, as Cubitus, Cyprian, and Infirmofpurpus gulped nervously.

Opening the door slightly, Stephanie looked outside to see a large group of Vikings in front, looking terrified.

“LET US IN!!!” one of them shrieked.

Stephanie winced and turned her head over her shoulder, calling out to the villagers, “Help me open this door!”

Everyone ran over to Stephanie and helped her to open the door with their strength, as the large group of Vikings ran inside as fast as they could.

Not only the Vikings, but the Roman group ran inside too, not having any shields, swords, or their spears.

Once all of them had gotten inside, they closed the door as quickly as they could.

After the door was closed, everyone sighed in relief.

Turning to the leader, Stephanie asked, “What happened back there?”

He grabbed Stephanie by the sweater, shaking her while screaming, “THE LIVING DEAD HAS ARISEN!”

Asterix ran over to the leader of the Vikings, asking while trying to release Stephanie from his grip, “Did you see who rose the dead?”

Cubitus, Cyprian, and Infirmofpurpus gasped softly when a familiar face appeared from the group, looking as terrified as he was.

He has fair skin color, hazelnut eyes, and has no hair underneath his helmet.

He is wearing what seemed to be a Roman commanding uniform, with gold armor, a long red cape, green pants, and with some armor.

Behind him was another man, except he had short black hair, fair skin and was wearing what seemed to be a civilian’s outfit.

“The general we were following went out of control when he wore that helmet!” he exclaimed.

Stephanie cocked her head gently to the side and asked, “What was the helmet the general is wearing?”

The skinny man behind him snapped, startling Stephanie, “Why should we tell you?! We are Caesar’s greatest army in history and enemy of the Gauls behind you!”

“If you are,” Stephanie sighed. “Then why are you in our fortress, weaponless and armorless, shaking in your sandals, instead of fighting against the corrupted general and his undead army?”

All the Romans in the army gulped, still shaking from head to toe.

Stephanie sighed as she pushed back a strand of her hair, thinking to herself.

“Okay, I am taking a wild guess that the commander is wearing Hades’ Helmet of the Dead.” Stephanie guessed.

The general of the group nodded his head, answering Stephanie’s question.

The leader of the Vikings asked, looking more scared than usual, “What are you going to do about it?! They cannot be dead!”

“You mean permanently dead?” Stephanie asked, moving her hand up.

“That’s what I was going to say!” he groaned.

Stephanie rolled her eyes before saying, “I might be crazy to say this, but,” she paused for a moment before finishing, “We need to go through the undead army to defeat that user.”

In the background, one of the Roman soldiers fainted out of shock.

“YOU?!” exclaimed the skinny Roman. “ARE YOU CRAZY?!?!”

“Hey, I told you that it was going to be crazy,” Stephanie shrugged.

Asterix facepalmed after Stephanie shrugged her shoulders.

“He will kill you for good with one touch of his hand!” the skinny Roman continued. “I have seen a few Romans that have done that before!”

Stephanie cocked her eyebrow after he had explained before saying, “Listen, there’s a fine line between good and evil.”

They listened with confusion, as Stephanie continued.

“There’s the middle, which is neutral,” Stephanie explained. “The left is the good side, and the right is the evil side.”

Even Cubitus, Cyprian, and Infirmofpurpus were curious as they listened to Stephanie’s words.

“There was a saying from an old friend of mine,” Stephanie sighed. “It’s either I’m going out there alone, or with a friend, because I will die as a hero or live long enough to see myself become the villain!”

After that, Stephanie huffed and walked away from the group, exiting out of the village.

But, she did close the door behind her back and started heading towards the battlefield of the undead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stay tuned for the next chapter!


	5. The Roman Patrol P.4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stephanie goes alone to defeat a general, but something happens unexpectedly...

Stephanie continued marching towards the battlefield, holding no weapons in her arms or anything to protect herself.

Her long hair and wires up in a bun held with the same hairpin that the two ladies placed in.

Once she had reached the part of the battlefield, Stephanie stopped and waited patiently for the corrupted general to appear.

It took about a minute or two to pass for the general to appear until he finally came.

He looked almost like Hades himself, except that helmet’s gem was glowing a dangerous red color.

The corrupted general made the first move, lifting his right hand up and saying something in Greek.

Stephanie translated what he said in Greek, before feeling the ground quivering from underneath her feet.

Glancing down, Stephanie watched as the green grass turned black and lifeless, as Stephanie took a step back, watching life disappearing at a rapid pace.

Then, a boney and undead hand forced itself out from the ground, causing Stephanie to flinch slightly from the appearance of it.

Slowly, undead Roman and Viking soldiers came out from the ground, showing flesh, green or pale skin, pale eyes, and holding damaged or smashed weaponry in their arms.

Stephanie looked surprised as she watched each undead soldier positioned themselves for attacking.

The corrupted general grinned and pointed at Stephanie with a clawed finger, saying, “Kill.”

Immediately, all the undead soldiers charged at Stephanie, roaring and baring their rotted, crooked, yellow teeth.

Stephanie was about to use one of her spells to slow down the undead for the moment when she heard something.

It sounded like a speeding car that was heading around 80 or 70 miles per hour.

She yelped slightly as a metallic bang came from the front, as the sound of bodies landed on the ground.

Glancing over, Stephanie was surprised to see it was Asterix, holding a Roman shield in his hands.

“Asterix, you came!” Stephanie grinned. “Weirdly at the right timing too!”

Asterix glanced over his shoulder to Stephanie, looking confused before Stephanie exclaimed, “Look out!” and quickly grabbed the back of his shirt.

After Stephanie grabbed Asterix by the back of his shirt, she yanked him back quickly before one of the undead soldiers grabbed him.

The soldier instead grabbed Stephanie’s left leg and was about to bite when Stephanie kicked her leg up as fast as she could, knocking the head off with one clean kick.

Once the head was off, Stephanie jumped back before another could grab, landing in the distance.

“Okay,” Stephanie sighed as she placed down a surprised Asterix down on the ground. “I just saw that general,” she pointed at the general in the background, wearing a helmet. “Just used an incantation that can raise the dead.”

Asterix listened to Stephanie’s plan, although not too sure of how he is going to follow this.

“If we can stall the undead, we might get to that general before he summons more and takes off that helmet,” Stephanie turned to Asterix and placed her hands on his shoulders as he glanced up at her. “I’m counting on you, Asterix.”

“What about us?” Stephanie glanced over her shoulder and noticed the villagers, holding weapons in their hands, and shields.

The Roman army was behind them too, although shaking, they looked determined to fight against the undead.

Stephanie smiled gently and nodded her head.

“Yes,” Stephanie smiled. “I’m counting on all of you.”

Then, she glanced over at the undead army, before back at them.

“Good luck,” and she moved her hand from Asterix’s shoulder and headed into the battlefield.

Vitalstatistix climbed onto his shield that is held up by two of the villagers, took his sword out of his sheath, and declared, “Attack!”

Everyone charged along with Stephanie at an astounding speed, sounding like a bunch of motorcycles.

It surprised Stephanie when she glanced over her shoulder for a moment to see what was going on.

She avoided each undead soldier and noticed the archers, deciding to take them out before they could hurt anyone.

Taking a tight u-turn, Stephanie headed towards the archer towers, running and avoiding as fast as she could.

While heading towards the towers, Stephanie summoned a hammer out of thin air.

She rounded up her hammer and swung, smashing the side of one of the towers, before moving onto the next.

After the last tower was smashed, and the archers were not firing anymore, Stephanie turned her attention back towards the general, heading towards him.

He angrily snarled when he noticed Stephanie was heading towards him and lifted his right hand up, saying something else in Greek, surprising Stephanie.

The ground turned blacker, and Stephanie dodged, as spikes appeared from the ground, missing Stephanie by an inch.

After smacking one of the undead soldiers away with one swift punch of his fist, Asterix glanced over to see if Stephanie was okay, only to see the spikes appearing from the ground.

Stephanie manages to avoid the spikes for a while, until he stopped, as he grabbed a stray arrow that was about to pierce him.

She took this chance.

Being as quick as she could, Stephanie ran behind him and grabbed him, struggling to get the helmet off from him.

But the corrupted general had his hands on it, using his strength to keep it on him.

Asterix noticed the struggle and ran over to help, as Obelix and his friends continued stalling the undead.

Meanwhile, Stephanie continued trying to get the helmet off from the general, trying to use her weight to get back on the ground.

But the general was struggling too much and trying to keep the helmet back on his head.

Stephanie finally was able to get her feet on the ground and was about to get the helmet off.

Suddenly, he grabbed the back of her sweater and flung her off his back.

She landed on her side after she was flung off of him as he lifted his right hand up.

He was about to use the spikes again to attack her.

But, Asterix then landed on his back, grabbing the helmet with his hands as the general growled.

Stephanie quickly flipped over to her front as she watched the struggle, as Asterix was trying to get the helmet off from him.

Soon, the helmet was only an inch from being off, when Asterix’s right hand was scratched by the general’s claws, causing him to cry out in pain.

Stephanie gasped as the general roughly grabbed Asterix by the arm and tossed him away.

After Asterix was tossed away from him, he was about to adjust his helmet, when Obelix shoulder-rammed into him.

The force from Obelix caused him to drop his helmet to the ground, almost close to Stephanie.

Stephanie quickly stood up to her feet after Obelix shoulder-rammed the general, as Obelix went over to check on his injured friend.

She picked the helmet up from the ground as the glowing from the gem stopped, meaning that no one else was in control.

But, Stephanie was stuck in a dilemma.

If she wears the helmet, she could get out of control like the general and could cause more damage to everyone else than before.

Or worse, Stephanie could be even more powerful and could destroy anything in her path with the help of the helmet in her hands.

But, she needed to wear the helmet to stop the undead from hurting everyone else and give it back to Hades.

So, Stephanie took the hard choice of the path.

Stephanie placed the helmet on top of her head.

“Stephanie!” Asterix tried to scramble up to his feet to stop Stephanie from wearing the helmet, but Obelix held him, trying to mend his scratch.

The scratch was like any animal’s scratches, except this scratch was turning black and started infecting his hand.

Stephanie’s eyes were glazed over and turned pure black, as she limped.

“🎵 **_ Wither and decay, _ 🎵 ** ” Stephanie began singing, her voice sounding beautiful, but at the same time, deadly.

Asterix and his friends watched with shock as Stephanie’s transformation started again, but this time, in a horrifying change.

From underneath the helmet, her hair and wires turned jet-black.

The hairpin, including the rubber band that kept her hair up, dropped out from inside, landing in the dead grass.

“🎵 **_ End this destiny, _ 🎵 ** ” Stephanie continued singing, as the undead zombies stopped attacking and started disappearing into thin air.

As Stephanie sang, black veins started going through her body, coming from her right metal hand, and the bottom of her eyes.

Her clothes turned black too, and her hair dropped out from the helmet.

It was waving around as if it was acting on its own.

“🎵 **_ Break these earthly chains, _ 🎵 ** ” Stephanie sang, before glancing up at the full moon. “🎵 **_ And set the spirit free, set the spirit free~. _ 🎵 ** ”

After singing the song, the undead was gone, but Stephanie was now out of control, and the general who was the first one to be uncontrolled was gone.

But, Stephanie stopped before continuing with the song, shook her head while closing her eyes, gritting her teeth, revealing her canines.

After shaking her head, Stephanie opened her eyes again and showed her eyes were not glazed over, except her scleras are black, and her eye color is red.

But then her eyes were glazed over again, and Stephanie groaned, reaching up and placed her hands on her temples.

Asterix realized what was going on with Stephanie and squirmed out of Obelix’s arms, running over to her.

“ASTERIX!” Obelix exclaimed. “COME BACK HERE!”

Asterix ignored Obelix’s cry and ran up to Stephanie, as she knelt down onto one knee, groaning as she held her head with her hands.

“Stephanie!” Asterix reached over to her with both of his hands. “Here, let me-”

Before he could help Stephanie, Stephanie grabbed his chest and snarled, baring her sharp teeth for a moment at her.

Asterix looked surprised and startled from it before Stephanie closed her eyes, shaking her head.

“ ** A-Asterix? ** ” Stephanie stammered. “ ** I-I need you t-to do me a favor! ** ”

Asterix nodded and listened to Stephanie’s orders, ignoring the fact that his scratch turned his hand black and was spreading to his wrist.

“ ** T-The gem on the helmet, ** ” Stephanie continued, pointing at it with a clawed finger. “ ** It’s the reason why it’s out of control. Someone cast a spell on it before the general wore it. Hurry! Take it off! ** ”

She paused for a moment as she groaned, releasing his shirt and digging her nails into the dirt ground.

Asterix did as Stephanie commanded him, grabbing the gem with his free hand as the other was starting to hurt more.

After getting the gem was pulled off the helmet, Asterix smashed it with the bottom of the hilt of his sword.

Once the gem was destroyed, both Asterix and Stephanie disappeared into thin air but left behind the smell of smoke.

* * *

Stephanie blinked her eyes and noticed they were inside a much darker temple, but could not see anything inside.

“ ** Asterix? ** ” Stephanie spoke, waiting for a few minutes for her night vision to kick in. “ ** Where are you? ** ”

“I’m right by you,” Asterix answered, before wincing in pain.

“ ** What’s wrong? ** ” Stephanie asked, hearing his wince.

“It’s my right hand,” Asterix answered, as Stephanie’s vision changed to night vision, seeing Asterix holding his hand. “Since that scratch, it has been hurting recently.”

Stephanie looked confused and concerned about what Asterix said, kneeling down to his height.

“ ** Let me have a look at it, ** ” Stephanie asked, holding her right hand out.

Asterix hesitated for a moment after Stephanie asked, before allowing her to look at what happened.

Stephanie noticed the black scratch marks, and it is now reaching to his elbow.

“ ** Eesh, ** ” Stephanie winced. “ ** It looks like that general gave you a slow poison. ** ”

“‘Slow poison?’” Asterix repeated in confusion. “What does that do?”

“ ** It means it slowly kills you, ** ” Stephanie answered. “ ** There’s a way to heal this, but I can’t in this form. ** ”

Asterix nodded his head, and Stephanie released his hand, standing back up to her feet.

“ ** But the weirdest part is where we are, ** ” Stephanie mumbled to herself loudly. “ ** There are skulls around here too. ** ”

Asterix flinched when Stephanie mentioned the word ‘skulls.’

“You can see in the dark?” he asked.

Stephanie nodded her head quietly before noticing the stairs that lead down into the dark.

Usually, the stairs from the previous temples she had been in lead up.

But this change of direction is different.

Taking Asterix by the left hand, Stephanie carefully guided him down the stairs, heading deeper and deeper into the pitch-black darkness.

Once they reached the end of the stairs, the room was lit up with flames, revealing more undead armies surrounding them.

Stephanie flinched and was about to attack along with Asterix, when a voice bellowed out, “ **_ LEAVE THEM! _ ** ”

Immediately, the undead army parted away from them, revealing Hades sitting in his chair in the back of the room, without his helmet.

Bravely, Stephanie walked up in front of Hades, as Asterix followed behind her.

The poison on his arm was reaching up to his shoulder.

She reached up to the helmet with both of her hands and took it off, as her original color returned to normal.

Stephanie placed Hades’ helmet on the altar in front of him before stepping back.

Hades lifted his hand up, and the helmet raised up into the air by magic before growing to his head size.

After it had grown to his size, Hades took the helmet out of the air and placed it back on his head.

“ **_ Thank you, _ ** ” he thanked, bowing slightly to Stephanie. “ **_ I’m surprised you managed to keep yourself in control. _ ** ”

“Without the help of Asterix,” Stephanie mentioned over to him. “I would’ve finished the entire incantation and could hurt more people.”

Hades looked surprised from the mention Stephanie made to Asterix, as Asterix bowed slightly, before wincing.

Confused, he got up from his chair and walked over to Asterix, kneeling down.

“ **_ Let me see your arm, _ ** ” Hades asked, holding his hand out.

Asterix lifted his arm up, and Hades looked at it, thinking to himself.

“ **_ What could have made this? _ ** ” Hades asked, glancing over at Stephanie.

“The general that was wearing that helmet before you or me,” Stephanie explained. “He scratched Asterix while we were trying to get the helmet off.”

Hades thought to himself for a moment after Stephanie explained what had happened to Asterix’s hand, before asking, turning to Stephanie, “ **_ Do you remember the Healing Incantation? _ ** ”

Confused, Stephanie nodded her head and said, “Yes, I remember it. Why?”

Hades stood up from the ground to see Asterix’s injury, and answered, pointing to the ceiling, “ **_ When you get back up to the surface, sing that song, and you will heal anyone who has been infected with it. Not only that, even the decaying. _ ** ”

Stephanie nodded her head and lifted her hand up that has her bracelet on.

Hades tapped the bracelet with his clawed finger, and a ruby gemstone was placed on the skull-shaped gem slot.

“ **_ There is one more Roman campground you need to demolish, _ ** ” Hades spoke before they disappeared. “ **_ That one has Artemis’ bow and quiver. _ ** ”

Stephanie nodded her head and bowed to Hades, along with Asterix.

“Thank you,” Stephanie thanked, before they both disappeared into thin air, leaving behind the smell of soot.

* * *

Meanwhile, Vitalstatistix was looking at the damage that had been done to half of the battlefield.

He was also looking at the decaying grass in his hands.

“How long does this last?” he asked, glancing over at Getafix.

Getafix thought to himself after Vitalstatistix asked him, gently stroking his beard with his hand.

“Taking on how long the potion for this will take,” Getafix finally spoke. “It will take about 4 or 5 weeks for it to either grow by naturally or magically.”

“‘4 or 5 weeks?!’” exclaimed Unhygienix. “We can’t last that long without vegetation! The boars won’t find any food like this either!”

In the background, the boars that were watching the aftermath of the battle nodded silently in agreement.

“Unless someone knows how to regrow everything!” Everyone glanced over to see Stephanie, with Asterix by her side.

The scratch on the back of his hand was still there but spreading to the bottom of his neck.

“How are you going to do all of this?” Fulliautomatix asked, shrugging his shoulders slightly. “It’s going to take 4 or 5 weeks for Getafix to make something powerful!”

Stephanie chuckled and said, showing them her left hand, “Watch.”

She placed her left hand on Asterix’s shoulder and started singing, but it was a different song, “🎵 _ Flower gleam and glow~, let your power shine~. _ 🎵”

As Stephanie sang, her hair started turning blonde, glowing with magic.

It started from the roots of her head and down to the ends of her hair.

Asterix and the others watched with surprise written on their face, as Stephanie continued singing.

“🎵 _ Make the clock reverse, _ 🎵” Stephanie continued singing, as the magic went through Stephanie’s left hand and to Asterix’s injured arm. “🎵 _ Bring back what once was mine~. _ 🎵”

Surrounding where Stephanie touches, the grass started growing back magically, as the darkness and decay were replaced with life.

“🎵 _ Heal what has been hurt~, _ 🎵” Stephanie continued singing, still holding Asterix’s arm with her hand. “🎵 _ Change the fates design~, save what has been lost~, bring back what once was mine~, what once was mine~. _ 🎵”

After the song was finished, Stephanie’s original hair color turned back to normal, as Stephanie opened her eyes, seeing that Asterix’s arm had healed.

She removed her hand from his arm, as Asterix looked at his arm with an astonished expression on his face, as Stephanie stood up from kneeling to his height.

“H-How did you do this?!” Obelix asked as some villagers looked at her hair.

Stephanie turned to his attention and answered, “If you learn a few magic spells from some friends, it might come in… handy.”

She started collapsing on the ground, before being caught by Obelix with one arm.’

Asterix immediately bolted up from the ground and held onto Stephanie’s leg.

“What happened?!” he asked.

Stephanie groaned and answered, pushing back a strand of hair, “I think I might have overdone my powers. When it comes to using a lot of powers, it comes with either me, passing out and sleeping, or just fainting on the spot.”

She groaned again as Obelix picked her up from the ground, heaving her over his shoulder.

“Right now,” Stephanie spoke while sounding a little dizzy, watching as the Roman army that ran into the village started heading off towards the distance. “I think a nice nap should work before moving onto the next camp.”

Asterix looked slightly confused from Stephanie’s Roman camp hunting spree, but shrugged his shoulders and followed after Obelix.

Right now, he has second thoughts about what Stephanie could be doing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stay tuned for the next chapter!

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you like this story!


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